Johnson was seriously injured, but survived the fall from the second level of the building in North Hollywood, Los Angeles Police Sgt. William Mann said.

Johnson, along with his recovered penis, was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was being treated, Mann said.

Details about what triggered the incident were not available.

Johnson has been a member of Northstar, a Long Beach, California, hip hop group that was part of the Wu-Tang Clan family, according to the Wu-Tang Clan website. He performs under the name Christ Bearer.

His recording credits include ''When the Guns Come Out,'' which was included on the soundtrack of the 2004 film ''Blade: Trinity,'' according to the Internet Movie Database.

Andre Johnson is seriously injured, but survives the fallHe is taken along with his recovered penis to Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterJohnson was a member of North Star, a Wu-Tang Clan affiliated hip hop groupHe performs under the name Christ BearerLos Angeles (CNN) -- Rapper Andre Johnson severed his penis and jumped from a Los Angeles apartment building early Wednesday, police said.

Johnson was seriously injured, but survived the fall from the second level of the building in North Hollywood, Los Angeles Police Sgt. William Mann said.

Johnson, along with his recovered penis, was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was being treated, Mann said.

Details about what triggered the incident were not available.

Johnson has been a member of Northstar, a Long Beach, California, hip hop group that was part of the Wu-Tang Clan family, according to the Wu-Tang Clan website. He performs under the name Christ Bearer.

His recording credits include "When the Guns Come Out," which was included on the soundtrack of the 2004 film "Blade: Trinity," according to the Internet Movie Database.

You all hear about this dumb idiot 14-year-old Dutch girl who has been arrested for tweeting funny bomb threats to American Airlines? First she was all racist, like, ''I am Ibrahim and I love Al Qaeda and also bombing shit,'' and then she thought she could ''block'' the FBI on Twitter. Oh man, what a dumb idiot!

But was she joking, and was it simultaneously her friend not her? Sure, why not.

Sarah, keep it together! Or at least ''block'' the FBI from following you on Twitter.

Whew, that should do it. OK, good job everyone!

Oh yeah, and now Sarah has been arrested by Rotterdam police after she and a family member moseyed on down to be like IT WAS ME SORRY SO SORRY OH RIGHT ALSO IT WASN'T ME IT WAS MY FRIEND.

So the Dutch police are interviewing her, and will doubtless just scare her real good and she will leave a chastened and wiser girl, and they will not even send her to Gitmo probably, even though she like totes deserves it.

But while we can all recognize that that girl is a Dumb Idiot, well, did you happen to notice the headline up there?

Yeah, my friends and I used to send Adam Curry, MTV VJ, death threats. On paper. Through the United States Mail. Signed, and with our return address. I don't remember why, but looking at that picture up top, I am guessing it had to do with his Richard Marx hair. I also seem to remember being outraged by his leather jackets? Not because they were leather, either, but '... just because? He was a phony fucking leather-jacket-wearing poseur who needed us to murder him?

Also, I know for a fact that when we called him a poseur, we included that Frenchified ''u.'' Does that make a death threat from 14-year-old girls more or less scary?

Sorry we told you we were going to murder you Adam Curry. We wouldn't have actually done it.

I am guessing nobody from MTV ever bothered to open our letters, even though they were addressed in eye-catching purple Magic Marker, probably.

Everybody, if you have a 14-year-old girl, go see what she is doing RIGHT NOW. Also, take away all computers. And pens.

Now here is the part of the story where instead of locking up your teenager, which you should, you will have to punch your own self in the face:

In looking up Adam Curry to steal that image for this post, I discovered Adam Curry, after MTV, was one of the first people to start using websites '-- he's the one who registered MTV.com '-- and was in early on web portals and hosting.

By 2005, he'd sold one company, started at least two more failed ones, and that year was ordered by a judge to return $250 million he'd taken from one of his businesses.

Adam Curry's companies '-- even failed ones '-- made so much money he was able to loot one for hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars.

Adam Curry.

This guy.

Yeah. Him.

That still doesn't mean we should have threatened to kill him though, I'm almost positively sure.

As I write this, Twitter is being spammed with hundreds of users tweeting out the exact same message:

If you search for 'NSA' on Twitter now, you'll face a wall of these EXACT SAME tweets, sent by different accounts of course.

Well, sort of . Variations on Google, Amazon and Ebay accounts have sent multiple copies of this same message:

There seem to be at least five dummy accounts for each company.

Other 'identities' that are heavily represented in this spam-tsunami feature 1) young men with Arabic sounding names like this chap:

2) young ladies with sultry avatars:

3) Beauty/Horoscope/Heath feeds that have suddenly developed an interest in Snowden:

Somebody called 'Ehad' has been really busy!

I'll just go out and say it: an organization with hundreds of Twitter users at its beck and call has decided to push Tor, The Onion Router, and it's software Tails as 'the software Snowden uses to keep safe'. This organization doesn't seem to worry that Amazon, Ebay or Google will get pissy about their logos being used in the operation. This organization decided to swamp Twitter in one big Tails ad after the close of business on April 15th, the day when US taxes are due. (At least that is what my Twitter stream is showing me.)

The article being pushed most is Joe Fingas' ''Here's the software that helps Edward Snowden Avoid the NSA''. The piece is two paragraphs long'' perfect for those of us with a short attention span:

Edward Snowden hasn't escaped the NSA's watchful eyes purely by exploiting lax security '-- he also uses the right software. We now know that he communicates with the media using Tails, a customized version of Linux that makes it easy to use Tor's anonymity network and other tools that keep data private. The software loads from external drives and doesn't store anything locally, so it's relatively trivial for Snowden and his contacts to discuss leaks without leaving a trace.

The underlying technology isn't completely original, and it's not perfect; Tails' open source code and anonymous developer base help resist pressure to include spy-friendly back doors, but there are still potential security holes. Users also have to be careful with their choices of internet services while using Tails, as the wrong ones could give the whole game away. Even with those concerns in mind, the software is a big help to Snowden, journalists and others that want to keep their conversations under wraps with a minimum of effort.

That's it.

Now this will seem odd to people who watched Snowden's SXSW talk a few weeks ago, where he stated that Tor was useful for blocking run-of-the-mill spybots, but not good for journalists or activists who might be targeted for NSA surveillance.

Do you think Snowden thought he might have been targeted for surveillance once he signed up to work with the CIA/NSA/BoozAllen? He certainly knew Laura Poitras was under surveillance. So why would he use TOR/Tails for 'keeping safe' when he clearly stated at SXSW that these tools are not good for targeted individuals?

The people who Twitter lets spam messages like the ones I've posted; the people who are trying to spin Snowden's message; the people who keep hundreds of internet trolls on payroll to spin public discourse; these are the people who are promoting TOR.

You know, TOR'' paid for by The Broadcasting Board of Governors, the same American Government outfit that spins for Carlos Garcia-Perez, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) and Champion of ZunZuneo.

(ZunZuneo is the US government's attempt to influence public discourse in Cuba and destabilize the country.)

TOR is an American intelligence asset paid for by one of Washington's top propaganda outfits. Joe Fingas is either really stupid, ignorant or a cheap shill for the NSA. Klint Finley of WIRED is just as bad.

'... and one message for the Associated Press: Twitter needs to be 'outed' as a spy tool, just as you claim to have done with ZunZuneo. Or is the AP just part of the problem? ;)

Internet community, you've been warned. If you want security, start thinking along these lines.

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Related

Cookies that give you away: The surveillance implications of web tracking

[Today we have another announcement of an exciting new research paper. Undergraduate Dillon Reisman, for his senior thesis, applied our web measurement platform to study some timely questions. -Arvind Narayanan]

Over the past three months we've learnt that NSA uses third-party tracking cookies for surveillance (1, 2). These cookies, provided by a third-party advertising or analytics network (e.g. doubleclick.com, scorecardresearch.com), are ubiquitous on the web, and tag users' browsers with unique pseudonymous IDs. In a new paper, we study just how big a privacy problem this is. We quantify what an observer can learn about a user's web traffic by purely passively eavesdropping on the network, and arrive at surprising answers.

At first sight it doesn't seem possible that eavesdropping alone can reveal much. First the eavesdropper on the Internet backbone sees millions of HTTP requests and responses. How can he associate the third-party HTTP request containing a user's cookie with request to the first-party web page that the browser visited, which doesn't contain the cookie? Second, how can visits to different first parties be linked to each other? And finally, even if all the web traffic for a single user can be linked together, how can the adversary go from a set pseudonymous cookies to the user's real-world identity?

The diagram illustrates how the eavesdropper can use multiple third-party cookies to link traffic. When a user visits 'www.exampleA.com,' the response contains the embedded tracker X, with an ID cookie 'xxx'. The visits to exampleA and to X are tied together by IP address, which typically doesn't change within a single page visit [1]. Another page visited by the same user might embed tracker Y bearing the pseudonymous cookie 'yyy'. If the two page visits were made from different IP addresses, an eavesdropper seeing these cookies can't tell that the same browser made both visits. But if a third page, however, embeds both trackers X and Y, then the eavesdropper will know that IDs 'xxx' and 'yyy' belong to the same user. This method applied iteratively has the potential of tying together a lot of the traffic of a single user.

Once we had this idea, we wanted to test if it would actually work in practice. Everything depends on just how densely third-party trackers are actually embedded on sites. We conducted automated web crawls of 65 simulated users' web browsing over three months, and found that unique cookies are so prevalent that the eavesdropper can reliably link 90% of a user's web page visits to the same pseudonymous ID. (We omitted pages that embed no ID cookies at all, but those are a minority.)

We also found that the cookie linking method is extremely robust and succeeds under a variety of conditions (Section 4.1). We considered how variations in cookie expiration dates, the size of the user's history (i.e., the number of pages visited), and the types of pages visited affect the eavesdropper's changes, and found the impact to be minimal. Perhaps most significantly, however, we found that this surveillance method can still link about 50% of a user's history to the same pseudonymous ID even with just 25% of the current density of trackers on the web. This means that even if 75% of sites or trackers adopt mitigation strategies (such as deploying HTTPS), the eavesdropper still learns a lot.

Finally, we studied how an eavesdropper might learn the real-world identity behind a cluster of web pages associated with a pseudonymous ID. It turns out that this is surprisingly easy '-- many sites display real-world attributes such as real name, username, or email on unencrypted pages to logged in users, which means that the eavesdropper gets to see these identifiers. We conducted a survey of such leakage on popular sites, and found that over half of popular sites with account creation leak some form of real-world identity (Section 4.2).

While it's no surprise that web traffic contains sensitive information about individuals, what we've shown is just how complete a profile can be extracted even if the user's traffic is mixed with millions of other users. Further, an eavesdropper can connect these profiles to real-world identities without needing the co-operation of any websites. While HTTPS deployment by trackers can help, the only practical solution at the current time seems to be for users to install anti-tracking and anonymity tools.

[1] An exception is if the user routes traffic through Tor. Different requests can take different paths and the exit node IPs will be different. Thus, use of Tor with application-layer anonymization (e.g., Tor browser bundle) defeats our attack.

Hello. My name is John Cook, and as of three weeks ago I became the editor-in-chief of The Intercept. Since then, we haven't published much material on the site, and that's been on purpose. I'd like to take a moment to catch interested readers up on where we are and what you can expect from us over the coming weeks and months.

The site launched in February with an announcement from co-founders Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill that The Intercept was coming online with an initial short-term focus on stories about the operations of the National Security Agency, based in large part on an archive of documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The decision to begin publishing at that point was based on a commitment to continue the work of reporting on, publishing, and explicating those documents. It was not based on an assessment that everything that one needs for the successful launch of a news web site''staff, editorial capacity, and answers to questions about the site's broader focus, operational strategy, structure, and design''had been worked out.

Those things still have not been worked out, and over the past three weeks I have begun the process of resolving them in collaboration with the remarkably talented team that has already been assembled here. Until we have completed the work of getting staffed up and conceptually prepared for the launch of a full-bore news operation that will be producing a steady stream of shit-kicking stories, The Intercept will be narrowly focusing on one thing and one thing only: Reporting out stories from the NSA archive as quickly and responsibly as is practicable. We will do so at a tempo that suits the material. When we are prepared to publish those stories, we will publish them. When we are not, we will be silent for a time, unless Glenn Greenwald has some blogging he wants to do, because no one can stop Glenn Greenwald from blogging.

There are a lot of stories out there right now that we are very eager to cover''the Heartbleed vulnerability, the Senate intelligence committee's report on the CIA's torture program, the president's claim that he wants to end the intelligence community's bulk collection programs''in depth and in detail. But you shouldn't expect to be hearing from us on much aside from the very specific work of the documents, which is itself time-consuming and exacting, for some small, indeterminate, but discrete period of time as we get the site set up to operate for the long term. It is of course very gratifying that some folks out there who admire the excellent work our reporters have done are eager to see what we come up with in this new venture, and we appreciate the attention and curiosity.

To that end, I will try to make myself available today in the comments on this post to answer questions about what we are doing and what we intend to do. I'll be here until 3 p.m. EDT, when I'm off to seder. Chag sameach.

Pam OmidyarReutersApril 14, 2014PrintIn the 20 years since the horrific 1994 genocide in Rwanda and its terrible spillover into the Congo, it has been clear that the global community remains ill-equipped to address such human-made catastrophic tragedies.

While many have worked to heal Rwanda, crises of unfathomable mass violence have continued to unfold in places like Sierra Leone, the former Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Syria. In each case, the international community has failed to live up to a global commitment to prevention, protection and accountability for mass crimes.

War and mass violence not only halts development, it reverses it '-- scarring the lives and memories of new generations. This creates traumatized societies '-- one of the biggest factors contributing to conflict.

Human rights, good governance, rule of law, economic opportunity, and norms of international, restorative and reparative justice all need to be nurtured and encouraged to build peaceful societies. We founded Humanity United in 2005 to connect and support public, private and social sectors with the same vision.

The destructive nature of mass violence must be stopped in order for countries to progress and their populations to thrive. We have worked with partners '-- individuals, governments and institutions '-- to strengthen the policies and laws that can help prevent mass atrocities before the killing starts.

President Barack Obama announced the Atrocities Prevention Board (APB) during a 2012 speech at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. It was established after a 2008 report by the Genocide Prevention Task Force recommended it, and is supported by a coalition of civil society groups '-- the Prevention and Protection Working Group '-- and funded by Humanity United.

The APB brings together every relevant U.S. agency, such as the State Department, the Defense Department and U.S. Agency for International Development to develop new tools for identifying, preventing and responding to escalating crises around the world. But two years later the board's record is mixed.

There have been some successes, such as the APB's work with the international community and local civil society groups to prevent election-based violence in Kenya. There was also an early response to violence in Jonglei, South Sudan in 2013. It was successful in focusing public attention on the Myanmar regime's oppression of the Rohingya people and increased aid to the Central African Republic. The U.S. Treasury Department has increased efforts to locate and punish those responsible for atrocities.

There is no denying, however, that we have failed to prevent and address recent atrocities in places like Syria and South Sudan. In Myanmar, increased engagement is required to prevent more mass violence against minority populations.

Critics cite these cases as APB failures. Yet the solution does not lie, as these critics argue, in dismantling the APB. In fact, the board requires far more support '-- and should have more investment.

The APB's mission and mandate is to ensure that atrocities prevention is treated as a core national security priority. But its structure is problematic. One unfortunate consequence of interagency boards is the dilution of leadership and accountability. Clarity on the ultimate responsibility for the APB and its conduct is needed '-- as well as continued development and better access to the tools, including high-level diplomatic pressure on parties to the conflict, increased humanitarian access and assistance, denial of impunity for perpetrators and strengthened targeted sanctions for the enablers of atrocities. All this is crucial to prevent a tipping point into chaos.

To be effective, the board needs more support from Congress and civil society and it must be made permanent through an executive order so that atrocities prevention will remain a priority in the future.

In our interconnected and interdependent world, preventing atrocities is in everyone's interest. It remains U.S. foreign policy's most haunting challenge. The more than 800,000 victims in Rwanda, as well as the millions killed and displaced in Syria, South Sudan and countless other locations, demonstrate the danger of complacency.

The recent dust-up at the Media Lens forum has, among other things, really made me appreciate '-- even more than usual '-- the smart, funny, talented people that read and comment here. I'd like to have discussions rolling constantly, but for various reasons I can't create as many full-fledged blog posts as that requires. So I'm going to try something tonight where I just throw out some food for thought, and see what you all make of it. You can work with the topic, or you can throw out something else you think is more interesting. If it works out, I'll make it a regular thing.

Look at these two tweets. Tell me what you think (more below).

.@paulcarr This war on @ggreenwald is getting old and embarrassing. It almost reads like sour grapes.'--Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) April 13, 2014

Omidyar is the biggest media-oligarchy story, period. The fact almost no reporters obsess over it '' is part of the whole rotten meatball'--Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) April 14, 2014

I'll start by saying that the fact that Marxists and anarchists now call a billionaire by his first name is reason enough to keep looking at/writing about the social phenomena that brought that about. So getting accused of monomania for doing so is getting very old, especially since people like Henwood are no less obsessed. They're just obsessed in a different way. The right way. Accusing people who are making a point of not applauding of obsession is just another way of getting people to shut up '-- another form of ostracism '' like what Patrick Higgins wrote about here in part 3 of his excellent recent series.

Once again, I'm with Mark Ames (sue me). As I have said before, the way left journalists and media watchdog groups like Media Lens and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting have stood down on this story is nothing short of shameful. The sad thing is, there will be no catching up. There is a timeframe when something is newsworthy, and somehow Omidyar and Co have managed to avoid scrutiny and analysis during their allotted time. They will be old news before they've been anything more than the stuff of successive press releases.

There is no question that there is something really very odd about how heavily disciplined and vigorously policed discussion of the Snowden Leaks, Greenwald, Omidyar and First Look is on the left. Why is that?

Tell me what you think. Keep it loose. If you have something else on your mind, let it rip. Links to other interesting stuff welcome. Be cool, be you, as Pierre would say.

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Bank$ters

allAfrica.com: Libya Goes Head to Head With SocGen in U.S.$1.5 Billion Lawsuit

Libya's sovereign wealth fund has filed a bribery case against French bank Soci(C)t(C) G(C)n(C)rale, adding to its $1 billion lawsuit against Goldman Sachs.

Tripoli: The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) has filed a $1.5 billion lawsuit against Soci(C)t(C) G(C)n(C)rale (SocGen), claiming the French investment bank helped channel bribes worth tens of millions of dollars to associates of Saif al-Islam, the son of the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The LIA, a $60 billion fund set up to invest the country's vast oil wealth, alleges that SocGen fraudulently paid over $58 million to a company called Leinada for "advisory services". These services related to $2.1 billion of derivatives trades that the LIA entered into with SocGen between 2007 and 2009.

The Libyan fund claims that Leinada has "no discernible expertise in advising on or structuring financial derivative transactions." Leinada is registered in Panama but controlled by Libyan businessman Walid Giahmi, who is believed to be close to the Gaddafi family.

In the derivative transactions, the LIA suffered heavy losses and are calling for the trades to be voided.

SocGen has called the claims in the lawsuit, which has been filed in London's High Court, as "groundless and without substance."

The bank admits to using agents to conduct sales, but says this was normal practice and that middlemen are "fully reviewed through our compliance procedures in respect of the regulations and in complete transparency with the client."

The case against Goldman Sachs

The LIA's lawsuit against SocGen is not its only ongoing case in a London court. The fund's $1 billion case against Goldman Sachs, in which it accuses the American investment bank of exploiting the LIA's lack of financial expertise to make a profit, commenced in January.

Goldman Sachs was one of many Western banks that tried to curry favour with the fund in the mid-2000s when Libya's relations with Western governments thawed, reportedly by plying executives with expensive chocolates and aftershave, and funding luxury trips for officials.

Having won its trust, Goldman Sachs allegedly then abused it by investing vast sums of the LIA's money in risky and complex derivative trades in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

The Libyan fund claims that it lost over $1 billion in these deals, which its executives did not have the expertise to understand, while Goldman Sachs reaped profits of $350 million.

"No one could evaluate what was happening to our money," one former LIA employee said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2011. "We saw the losses mounting, and we didn't have the paperwork or tools to analyze our investment."

In a statement released by the LIA in January 2014, it claimed: "[Goldman Sachs] abused the relationship of trust and confidence with the then newly-formed LIA, being the sovereign wealth fund of the Libyan people."

Goldman Sachs has refuted the accusations, saying they are "without merit".

Misappropriation, misuse and misconduct

Under Gaddafi, the LIA is understood to have been riddled with large-scale misappropriation, misuse and misconduct of funds. Since the dictator's overthrow, the new management is reportedly trying to turn things around, partly by reassessing past dealings with the likes of Soci(C)t(C) G(C)n(C)rale.

"This claim, together with the one against Goldman Sachs that was initiated in January 2014 reflects the desire of the LIA's new board of directors to redress previous wrongs and seek the recovery of these substantial funds as it seeks to invest and generate wealth for the people of Libya," said LIA chair, Abdul-Magid Breish.

The suits against Goldman Sachs and Soci(C)t(C) G(C)n(C)rale also come as the US Securities and Exchange Commission investigates relations between the LIA and US financial institutions.

The agency is looking into whether US financial organisations made payments to LIA executives in the hope of gaining closer access to the fund.

Many of the LIA's assets remain frozen under sanctions. Jason Peck, a researcher at the University of Cambridge and President of the consultancy company Libya Analysis, says that the corruption in Libya is such that the government prefers some sanctions to remain on LIA assets to avoid individuals or groups siphoning off funds.

Rebuilding after Gaddafi

Libya boasts some of the largest oil reserves in the world and the LIA was established to manage its vast resource wealth in the interests of the population.

The Libyan fund has huge reserves in the Central Bank of Libya, set up myriad subsidiary companies, and has investments in hundreds of firms around the world from General Electric to the telecoms multinational AT&T to the Italian football giants Juventus.

It has also had multi-billion dollar investments with investment banks, many of which went awry when markets collapsed in the 2007/8 financial crisis.

In the wake of these losses and in an attempt to break with a past characterised by corruption, the LIA now seems to be trying to rebuild its reputation and recover some of the huge sums lost.

It also claims to be set on improving accountability and transparency, recently hiring accountancy firm Deloitte to conduct an asset audit and consultants Oliver Wyman to report on strategy in order to "enhance its corporate governance in accordance with best practices."

Elite$

Gates Foundation Insider's email

One thing

I would point out, there are two types of people at the foundation. Full

Time Employees (FTE), and contingent workers. A FTE complained that

contingent workers were getting to many benefits, and shouldn't be equal.

This led to this, overheard, and FTE saying to a guest, about a security

guard holding a door, "You don't have to say thank you to them, they are

just security." It is despicable the level that FTE's feel they are better

than everyone else. Besides the fact that a motto the foundation has is "all

lives are equal." I think the caveat is if you have money or make us money.

I don't mind if you read my things if it makes sense for the show, but I

wish to remain anonymous. Oh, and last, contingent workers were told they

couldn't walk in the front door, use the break rooms in the building, and

eat lunch in the beautiful "campus heart" because it might look like they

are slacking. The level of slacking that the foundation does is so giant, I

don't know how they do anything. I think any and all Dilbert comics apply to

WASHINGTON'--Frustrated by the stalemate in Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry has been pushing for the U.S. military to be more aggressive in supporting the country's rebel forces. Opposition has come from the institution that would spearhead any such effort: the Pentagon.

Mr. Kerry and United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power have advocated options that range from an American military intervention to weaken the regime of President...

SYRIA-Kerry now meeting with Patreus, who works for KKR

Searching for new options, Mr. Kerry has been huddling with retired generals

David Petraeus

and

Jack Keane,

architects of the 2007 troop surge in Iraq. The two generals have

told Mr. Kerry they believe a military program to train and equip the

Syrian rebels, and limited strikes to weaken Mr. Assad, could be

effective, according to U.S. officials.

State

Department frustrations with the Pentagon date back to early

administration debates in 2012, including whether to create no-fly zones

KIEV, April 15 (RIA Novosti) '' The Ukrainian parliament approved a law Tuesday declaring Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which became Russia's newest regions last month, as ''temporarily occupied territory.''

The document defines the ''temporarily occupied territory'' as the area of Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as their airspace and territorial waters, including the seabed and its resources.

The legislation was passed by 228 votes, two more than the minimum required to send it to Ukraine's parliamentary speaker and interim President Olexander Turchynov to be signed into law.

The law will come into force after it is published in the newspaper of record.

The lawmakers refused to support criminal punishment for so-called collaborationism, a key demand by radicals, defined as ''deliberate cooperation in any form with the occupied state or its representatives in violation of Ukrainian state interests.''

The legislation says the ''temporarily occupied territory'' is an integral part of Ukraine and subject to Ukrainian laws, while assigning responsibility for violations of human rights there to Russia.

The lawmakers also said that Moscow should pay compensation for all material damage caused by absorbing Crimea into Russia. The legislation proposes adding a punishment of up to three years in jail to the Ukrainian criminal code for violating the entry rules to the territory.

The republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which has a special status within the region, were added as the 84th and 85th federal subjects of the Russian Federation after President Vladimir Putin signed a decree finalizing the reunification last month.

Crimea, a predominantly ethnic Russian region, rejected the legitimacy of the new self-proclaimed Western-backed government, and moved to rejoin Russia after the government in Kiev introduced measures aimed against Russian-speakers in the country.

Moscow has described the uprising in Kiev as an illegitimate fascist coup and a military seizure of power, which resulted in it taking steps to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine.

By Patrick Martin17 April 2014Ukrainian troops sent to the eastern part of the country have refused orders to suppress opposition to the right-wing imperialist-backed government in Kiev and instead handed over their weapons, including armored cars and tanks, to the popular movement there.

According to detailed accounts from British reporters in eastern Ukraine'--carried by Reuters News Agency, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and the Guardian daily newspaper'--two armored columns of Ukrainian troops were confronted by hundreds of local residents.

The Guardian described at least three separate incidents:

· A crowd of locals was able to stop a column of armor outside Kramatorsk on Tuesday.

· In another video uploaded on Monday, angry locals stopped a Ukrainian tank outside Slavyansk. After they chastised the soldiers inside, the soldiers stopped the engine.

· The troop carriers seized by the militia on Wednesday had apparently arrived by train, possibly from the neighboring region of Dnipropetrovsk. They were taken without a shootout, suggesting that the troops who had arrived with them had at least to some extent joined protesters.

The reporter, Alec Luhn, described women who ''recognized one of the masked fighters and drew him in for a quick hug. At least some of these pro-Russian militia men are local, it seems.'' He noted that the men wore a variety of camouflage and carried an assortment of weapons, another indication that they were not Russian troops, as claimed by Kiev.

He concluded, ''the bulk of them appeared to be from the ranks of the same armed militia that has seized government buildings around the region in recent days. Others were reportedly Ukrainian paratroopers from the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region who had joined the rebels on Wednesday.''

Reuters reported from Kramatorsk that government troops had driven armored personnel carriers into the town in the early morning hours of Wednesday, only to go over to pro-Russian protesters.

A soldier guarding one of the six vehicles identified himself as a member of Ukraine's 25th paratrooper division from Dnipropetrovsk and told Reuters: ''All the soldiers and the officers are here. We are all boys who won't shoot our own people.'' He said the soldiers had gone without food for four days until local residents fed them.

One anti-Kiev protester who gave his name as Olexander told Reuters, ''I think Donbass should be an independent country allied with Russia. My homeland is the Soviet Union.''

The BBC reported heated political discussions between Kramatorsk residents and the Ukrainian soldiers sent in by Kiev: ''Why did you come to our land?'' asked one man. ''Why are you driving over our fields? We are peaceful people! And we just want our demands to be respected!''

The BBC report continued: ''BBC journalists witnessed civilians, at least some of whom appeared to be local people, challenging soldiers, who were also blocked by a crowd a few kilometers outside the town. One officer said he had not 'come to fight' and would never obey orders to shoot his 'own people.'''

The American press also reported the incidents at Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. The New York Times acknowledged, ''A highly publicized Ukrainian Army operation to retake control of Slovyansk and other eastern cities from pro-Russia insurgents appeared to falter badly on Wednesday, with one column of armored vehicles abandoned to militant separatists and another ground to a halt by unarmed protesters blocking its path.''

The Times reported on videos from Kramatorsk showing Ukrainian soldiers handing over their armored cars to anti-Kiev protesters, saying it was not possible to determine whether they had been compelled by force or were in ''collusion'' with the population, drawing the remarkable conclusion: ''Either possibility, however, would signal an escalation by Russian-backed militants in eastern Ukraine.''

How Ukrainian soldiers rebelling against orders from Kiev to massacre protesters would constitute ''escalation by Russian-backed militants'' the newspaper did not bother to explain.

That the Kiev regime wanted a bloodbath cannot be doubted, given the statements from government and military leaders there. The commander of the pro-regime forces who moved into eastern Ukraine Monday, General Vasily Krutov said of the anti-government activists, ''They must be warned; if they do not lay down their arms, they will be destroyed.''

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov announced Tuesday that the ''antiterrorist operation to take back control'' of roughly ten cities in the eastern region of Donetsk had begun.

Arseny Yatseniuk, prime minister of the coup regime, accused Russia of ''exporting terrorism'' to Ukraine in the form of the armed groups that seized police headquarters and city halls in several eastern cities. ''The Russian government must immediately call off its intelligence-diversionary groups, condemn the terrorists and demand that they free the buildings,'' he declared.

''No amount of propaganda can make right something that the world knows is wrong.'' '' President Obama, March 26

Russia continues to spin a false and dangerous narrative to justify its illegal actions in Ukraine. The Russian propaganda machine continues to promote hate speech and incite violence by creating a false threat in Ukraine that does not exist. We would not be seeing the violence and sad events that we've witnessed this weekend without this relentless stream of disinformation and Russian provocateurs fostering unrest in eastern Ukraine. Here are 10 more false claims Russia is using to justify intervention in Ukraine, with the facts that these assertions ignore or distort.

1. Russia Claims: Russian agents are not active in Ukraine.

Fact: The Ukrainian Government has arrested more than a dozen suspected Russian intelligence agents in recent weeks, many of whom were armed at the time of arrest. In the first week of April 2014, the Government of Ukraine had information that Russian GRU officers were providing individuals in Kharkiv and Donetsk with advice and instructions on conducting protests, capturing and holding government buildings, seizing weapons from the government buildings' armories, and redeploying for other violent actions. On April 12, armed pro-Russian militants seized government buildings in a coordinated and professional operation conducted in six cities in eastern Ukraine. Many were outfitted in bullet-proof vests, camouflage uniforms with insignia removed, and carrying Russian-designed weapons like AK-74s and Dragunovs. These armed units, some wearing black and orange St. George's ribbons associated with Russian Victory Day celebrations, raised Russian and separatist flags over seized buildings and have called for referendums on secession and union with Russia. These operations are strikingly similar to those used against Ukrainian facilities during Russia's illegal military intervention in Crimea in late February and its subsequent occupation.

2. Russia Claims: Pro-Russia demonstrations are comprised exclusively of Ukrainian citizens acting of their own volition, like the Maidan movement in Kyiv.

Fact: This is not the grassroots Ukrainian civic activism of the EuroMaidan movement, which grew from a handful of student protestors to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from all parts of the country and all walks of life. Russian internet sites openly are recruiting volunteers to travel from Russia to Ukraine and incite violence. There is evidence that many of these so-called ''protesters'' are paid for their participation in the violence and unrest. It is clear that these incidents are not spontaneous events, but rather part of a well-orchestrated Russian campaign of incitement, separatism, and sabotage of the Ukrainian state. Ukrainian authorities continue to arrest highly trained and well-equipped Russian provocateurs operating across the region.

Fact: The recent demonstrations in eastern Ukraine are not organic and lack wide support in the region. A large majority of Donetsk residents (65.7 percent) want to live in a united Ukraine and reject unification with Russia, according to public opinion polls conducted at the end of March by the Donetsk-based Institute of Social Research and Policy Analysis. Pro-Russian demonstrations in eastern Ukraine have been modest in size, especially compared with Maidan protests in these same cities in December, and they have gotten smaller as time has progressed.

Fact: What is going on in eastern Ukraine would not be happening without Russian disinformation and provocateurs fostering unrest. It would not be happening if a large Russian military force were not massed on the border, destabilizing the situation through their overtly threatening presence. There simply have not been large-scale protests in the region. A small number of separatists have seized several government buildings in eastern cities like Donetsk, Luhansk, and Slovyansk, but they have failed to attract any significant popular support. Ukrainian authorities have shown remarkable restraint in their efforts to resolve the situation and only acted when provoked by armed militants and public safety was put at risk. Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observers have reported that these incidents are very localized.

5. Russia Claims: Ukrainians in Donetsk rejected the illegitimate authorities in Kyiv and established the independent ''People's Republic of Donetsk.''

Fact: A broad and representative collection of civil society and non-governmental organizations in Donetsk categorically rejected the declaration of a ''People's Republic of Donetsk'' by the small number of separatists occupying the regional administration building. These same organizations confirmed their support for the interim government and for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Fact: No evidence shows significant movement of Russian forces away from the Ukrainian border. One battalion is not enough. An estimated 35,000-40,000 Russian troops remain massed along the border, in addition to approximately 25,000 troops currently in Crimea.

7. Russia Claims: Ethnic Russians in Ukraine are under threat.

Fact: There are no credible reports of ethnic Russians facing threats in Ukraine. An International Republican Institute poll released April 5 found that 74 percent of the Russian-speaking population in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine said they ''were not under pressure or threat because of their language.'' Meanwhile, in Crimea, the OSCE has raised urgent concerns for the safety of minority populations, especially ethnic Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, and others. Sadly, the ethnic Russians most at risk are those who live in Russia and who oppose the authoritarian Putin regime. These Russians are harassed constantly and face years of imprisonment for speaking out against Putin's regular abuses of power.

8. Russia Claims: Ukraine's new government is led by radical nationalists and fascists.

Fact: The Ukrainian parliament (Rada) did not change in February. It is the same Rada that was elected by all Ukrainians, comprising all of the parties that existed prior to February's events, including former president Yanukovych's Party of Regions. The new government, approved by an overwhelming majority in the parliament -- including many members of Yanukovych's former party -- is committed to protecting the rights of all Ukrainians, including those in Crimea.

9. Russia Claims: Ethnic minorities face persecution in Ukraine from the ''fascist'' government in Kyiv.

Fact: Leaders of Ukraine's Jewish as well as German, Czech, and Hungarian communities have all publicly expressed their sense of safety under the new authorities in Kyiv. Moreover, many minority groups expressed fear of persecution in Russian-occupied Crimea, a concern OSCE observers in Ukraine have substantiated.

10. Russia Claims: Russia is not using energy and trade as weapons against Ukraine.

Fact: Following Russia's illegal annexation and occupation of Crimea, Russia raised the price Ukraine pays for natural gas by 80 percent in the past two weeks. In addition, it is seeking more than $11 billion in back payments following its abrogation of the 2010 Kharkiv accords. Russia's moves threaten to increase severely the economic pain faced by Ukrainian citizens and businesses. Additionally, Russia continues to restrict Ukrainian exports to Russia, which constitute a significant portion of Ukraine's export economy.

History

Created in 1918 by the German military for food

Donetsk was made a part of Ukraine in 1918 for the coal by the german "planners"

15 April 2014Russia has warned the pro-Western regime in Kiev against mounting military operations against anti-government protests in eastern Ukraine, unleashing a new wave of anti-Russian warmongering in Berlin.

Even before the special session of the UN Security Council called by Russia, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Sch¤uble accused Moscow of ''fomenting the unrest in Ukraine,'' and threatened, ''Russia must know that the West is not to be blackmailed.''

Social Democratic Party (SPD) Chairman and Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel went even further. He used a commemoration of the First World War in Berlin's French Cathedral to stir up hatred against Russia. Together with French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, he accused Moscow of placing in question ''fundamental political values.''

Russia was ''clearly prepared to let tanks roll over European borders,'' he said, adding that Moscow ''has returned to the spirit of nationalist power politics'' that led to the First World War a century ago.

What an absurd distortion of reality! The truth is, 100 years after the beginning of the First World War and 75 years since the outbreak of the Second World War, it is Germany that has returned to an aggressive foreign policy, threatening a military confrontation with Russia, a nuclear power, and a Third World War.

Berlin, working closely with the United States, organised a putsch in Ukraine led by fascist forces that brought to power a pro-Western regime, which is driving Ukraine into a civil war and provoking a confrontation with Russia. Now, the German media is seeking to depict Russia as the aggressor, using the most brazen lies and distortions.

The media accuses Moscow of doing precisely what the West did in Kiev only a few weeks ago: instigating anti-government protests. While the Western media glorified the fascist putsch against the elected government of Yanukovych as a ''democratic revolution,'' now, without batting an eye, it is demanding the bloody suppression of the protests in east Ukraine and a more aggressive course against Russia.

The S¼ddeutsche Zeitung derides Russia in an editorial as a ''warmonger,'' and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as ''chief cynic.'' Russia's role is ''clear,'' it says: Moscow is rolling over Ukraine from the east, creating ''facts on the ground'' and spreading ''chaos, fear and disinformation.''

Clearly angry that the protests have not been crushed, the S¼ddeutsche asks: ''Why did the [Ukraine] interior minister allow the 48-hour ultimatum, which he issued Tuesday to the occupations in Donets and Lugansk, to lapse? Where were the army and the militias over the past several days?''

In its editorial on Monday, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung went further, writing that sanctions against Moscow were ''not enough,'' and that the West must ''support Ukraine more decisively than before.''

''If NATO and the EU do not now show that they are determined to resist the Kremlin's aggression,'' the newspaper wrote, ''even if that costs something,'' there can be ''an even greater cost '... If the Kremlin is hoping for backsliding, it might be tempted to assault the three Baltic states.''

How is the aggressive war hysteria in the German media and political establishment to be understood? It is part of a systematic revival of militarism by ruling circles in Germany. The same ruling circles, banks and corporations that unleashed two world wars are seeking to reprise their heinous crimes.

The opening shot was fired by German President Joachim Gauck in his October 3 speech. On the Day of German Unity, he provocatively declared that Germany was ''not an island'' that could abstain ''from political, economic and military conflicts.'' At the beginning of the year at the Munich Security Conference, he announced, together with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, an end to ''the policy of military abstention.'' In future, Germany would have to ''intervene more decisively and substantially'' in regions of international crisis.

Ever since, the Grand Coalition of the SPD and Christian Democrats in Berlin has ruthlessly implemented this policy, amid relentless warmongering from the media. As if the German campaign on the Eastern Front in the First World War and Hitler's war of extermination in the Second World War had never happened, German imperialism is renewing its traditional ''drive to the East.''

It is increasingly clear that the Ukraine crisis was deliberately provoked by the Western powers to be used as a pretext by Germany and its allies to rearm and return to an aggressive foreign policy. The defence ministry supports NATO's military build-up against Russia, deploying ships and aircraft close to the Russian border and holding military manoeuvres there. At the same time, the German military, politicians and leading journalists are demanding the reintroduction of conscription and the procurement of new tanks and attack drones.

The return of German militarism is supported by all the parties in the Bundestag (parliament). The most aggressive advocates of this policy are those parties that once claimed to represent the interests of the working class or the program of pacifism.

The SPD marked the 100th anniversary of its support for World War I with Frank-Walter Steinmeier as foreign minister in the Grand Coalition cracking the whip for Berlin's new great power politics.

The Greens, who have beaten the drum incessantly for German military operations abroad ever since they entered government in 1998, were active participants in the fascist-led putsch in Kiev. Now they are attacking the German government from the right. Their lead candidate in the European elections, Werner Schulz, alternately abuses the Russian president as a ''criminal,'' ''aggressor'' and ''war-monger,'' and calls for military action.

The degeneration of the Green warmongers is only surpassed by that of the Left Party. The former Stalinists and their pseudo-left supporters have dropped their pacifist pretensions just as the ruling elite is reviving its great power ambitions. Last week, for the first time, Left Party parliamentary deputies voted for a foreign military mission by the Bundeswehr (armed forces).

The Partei f¼r Soziale Gleichheit (PSG) is the only party that opposes the return of German militarism and condemns the warmongering by politicians and the media, which is opposed by the vast majority of the population. The PSG, together with the Socialist Equality Party in Britain, is standing in the European elections to develop the struggle against war on the basis of the programme of socialist revolution.

We call on workers and youth to turn the European elections into a plebiscite against the warmongers and the return of German militarism. Cast a vote against war and build the Partei f¼r Soziale Gleichheit and the Socialist Equality Party, the German and British sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International, to mobilize the working class against war!

MOSCOW: Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden on Thursday made an unexpected intervention in a phone-in with Russian President Vladimir Putin, quizzing him over the extent of Moscow's surveillance activities.

Putin, a former KGB agent, greeted Snowden as a fellow "former agent" before assuring him that Russia's surveillance of the population was not on a mass scale and strictly controlled by laws.

Snowden was granted asylum by Russia last August after he spent a month in the transit zone at a Moscow airport. His location within Russia has been kept strictly secret ever since.

Putin said in December that he had never met Snowden but said "he's not uninteresting to me," while insisting that espionage is a "necessity."

Snowden asked the question in English via video. Putin appeared taken aback and was not provided with a translation through an earpiece, suggesting he was not expecting the question.

Russians were able to submit videoed questions to Putin using cell phone apps. Snowden spoke against a dark background giving no clue to his location. His Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told the RIA Novosti news agency that Snowden recorded and submitted the video.

"I'd like to ask you: does Russia intercept, store or analyse in any way the communications of millions of individuals?" Snowden asked Putin.

"And do you believe that simply increasing the effectiveness of intelligence or law enforcement investigations can justify our placing societies rather than subjects under surveillance?"

Putin looked uncertain. "American English is a bit different," he said after the show's host initially assumed he understood the question. The host then translated it from his notes.

Putin replied that the kind of "mass eavesdropping" on the population that Snowden exposed in the United States was impossible as Russia's special services were under strict control.

"Mr Snowden, you're a former agent, I also had something to do with this, so we'll talk in a professional language," he greeted Snowden, drowned out by clapping from the audience.

"We have strict legal regulation of the use of special surveillance by special services, including tapping phone conversations, surveillance on the Internet and so on," Putin said, stressing a court decision was necessary for this.

"This is not done on a mass scale and indiscriminately in Russia. And it cannot be done by law."

Nevertheless Putin added that special services do use "appropriate modern means" to carry out surveillance of "criminals including terrorists."

"Of course we do not allow ourselves to do it in a mass scale, on an uncontrolled scale. And I hope, I very much hope, we never will.

"We don't have the technological means and money the United States has, and most importantly, thank God, in our country, special services are under the control of the state and society and their activities are regulated by the law."

Putin served as a KGB agent in East Germany and briefly headed the service's post-Soviet successor, the FSB, before becoming prime minister in 1999.

By Patrick Martin17 April 2014In separate statements in the US and Europe, President Obama and NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen ratcheted up the threats by US and European imperialism against Russia. Their statements came on the eve of four-party talks set for Thursday in Geneva, with the US, the European Union and their Ukrainian puppet regime facing off against Moscow.

Obama gave an interview to Major Garrett of CBS News, who asked a series of provocative questions suggesting that the White House should step up its campaign of economic warfare against Russia. Before the interview, the White House announced that a new round of economic sanctions had been ''prepared'' for use against Russia if there was no progress in resolving the crisis in Ukraine.

Obama told CBS that it was ''absolutely clear'' that Russia had violated Ukrainian sovereignty in annexing Crimea and that it was continuing to do so by supporting ''non-state militias'' in southern and eastern Ukraine, where there is overwhelming popular hostility to the US-backed right-wing regime in Kiev.

Offering no proof for his accusations against Russia, Obama declared: ''What I've said consistently is that each time Russia takes these kinds of steps, that are designed to destabilize Ukraine and violate their sovereignty, that there are going to be consequences, and what you have already seen is the Russian economy weaker, capital fleeing out of Russia.''

In language that suggested possible US support for future Ukrainian membership in NATO'--a radical break from previous policy'--Obama said, ''We don't need a war. What we do need is a recognition that countries like Ukraine can have relationships with a whole range of their neighbors and it is not up to anybody whether it is Russia or anybody else to make decisions for them.''

This declaration is remarkable for its hypocrisy, since US government officials have been ''making decisions'' for Ukraine, including who should head its government. Tapes of phone conversations between the US ambassador and State Department official Victoria Nuland indicated that they had already selected the man who is now Ukrainian prime minister'--Arseniy Yatseniuk, or ''Yats'', as they familiarly termed him'--during the US-backed protests that installed the current regime in Kiev.

More ominously, CIA Director John Brennan visited Kiev secretly last week for discussions on how to deal with the popular movement in eastern Ukraine. Coming out of those sessions, both interim president Oleksandr Turchynov and prime minister Yatseniuk denounced the anti-Kiev activists in the east as ''terrorists'' and ordered in the armed forces, commanded by a general who threatened the ''destruction'' of the opposition.

Given that Brennan heads the world's largest organization dedicated to assassination and provocation, and previously worked at the Obama White House directing drone missile attacks on people identified as ''terrorists'', his discussions in Kiev were undoubtedly focused on demonizing the political opposition to Kiev as criminals, and engineering a bloody outcome to the crisis.

The threat of military escalation came after a NATO meeting Wednesday in Brussels. NATO Secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the US-dominated military alliance would increase air patrols over the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia'--all former Soviet republics that border on Russia. This would represent an escalation of previous actions, which included dispatching warplanes to Poland and the Baltic states, and deploying AWACS surveillance aircraft in Poland and Romania.

''You will see deployments at sea, in the air, on land to take place immediately'--that means within days,'' Rasmussen said. ''We will have more planes in the air, more ships in the water, and more readiness on the land. More will follow, if needed, in the weeks and months to come.''

These deployments will include NATO warships off the coast of the Baltic states and in the eastern Mediterranean.

All indications are that the Geneva talks are not intended to resolve the crisis, but rather will be the occasion for further provocations against Russia. The acting foreign minister for the right-wing Ukrainian regime, Andriy Deshchytsia, said he would demand Russia return Crimea to Ukraine and rescind the decision of the Russian parliament authorizing Russian troops to deploy to Ukraine if President Vladimir Putin deemed it necessary to protect the Russian population in that country.

Claims by US, NATO and Ukrainian officials of ''Russian involvement'' in Ukraine are both completely hypocritical'--given the record of US-EU subversion in Kiev'--and deeply cynical. With the assistance of the compliant media in both the US and Europe, the imperialist powers are manufacturing a red herring to divert attention from their own operations and maneuvers.

Russia and Ukraine are deeply intertwined by common history, culture, economic ties and geography. In eastern Ukraine, particularly, where the majority of the population speaks Russian as its native tongue, and intermarriages are commonplace, to speak of ethnically distinct populations is absurd.

It is hardly surprising that the seizure of power by ultra-right Ukrainian nationalists, spearheaded by open fascists, anti-Russian chauvinists and anti-Semites, whose first significant policy decision was to prohibit official use of the Russian language, should provoke popular opposition, especially in the Russian-speaking east and south.

As for the claims that this popular opposition is ''instigated'' or ''fomented'' by Russia, the Putin regime, based on billionaire oligarchs, is hostile to any genuine popular movement in eastern Ukraine, a stronghold of the industrial working class, which might spill across the border and intensify the class struggle within Russia itself. If the Russian armed forces were eventually to intervene in eastern Ukraine, it would be to suppress such a popular movement before it could get out of control.

The imperialist powers and their stooges in Kiev regard the population of eastern Ukraine with undisguised loathing. It is worth recalling again the statement by interim president Turchynov on his website Tuesday, in which he admitted, ''Apart from Russian Special Forces and terrorists, there's hundreds of thousands of innocent Ukrainian people deceived by Russian propaganda.''

The military actions ordered by Kiev pose the danger of a full-scale bloodbath to crush broad sections of the eastern Ukrainian population who distrust and oppose the Kiev regime. Casualties have already been reported earlier this week in Kramatorsk and Slovyansk. On Wednesday, press reports indicated that Ukrainian soldiers opened fire on protesters in Mariupol, a city of 600,000 on the Sea of Azov, killing one person and wounding 12 more.

There were reports of Ukrainian troops balking at instructions to fire, and even fraternizing with the local population.

Such defections will only intensify the effort to mobilize ultra-right and neo-Nazi elements against the working class.

The head of the Ukrainian National Security Council, Andriy Parubiy, a leader of the anti-Semitic Svoboda party, sent out a message on Twitter saying that veterans of the coup in Kiev, many of whom were members of right-wing nationalist groups, being mobilized to join the fight. ''Reserve unit of National Guard formed from #Maidan Self-defense volunteers was sent to the front line this morning,'' he wrote.

The Obama administration has scheduled a deputies committee meeting this week'--tentatively set for Tuesday'--to resolve a bitter inter-agency dispute over a request from Russia with respect to the Open Skies program. Informed sources believe the White House is likely to side with the State Department, which wants to accommodate Russia, over the objections of the Obama administration's Defense Department and intelligence agencies.

The Open Skies treaty allows the United States and Russia to fly over each other's territory with planes loaded with certain agreed-upon sensor packages, in order to ensure compliance with arms control agreements and to provide assurance against preparations for various military surprises. Russia has asked the U.S. to agree to an upgrade in the sensor package their planes can carry. (Obviously, the exact nature of these sensor packages and the proposed upgrades is highly classified.) The request would apparently result in a significant increase in Russian spying capabilities; the first response from Pentagon was, according to one government official close to the situation, "You've got to be kidding." But the State Department has been making the case for acceding to the Russians' demands, and the White House seems to be on State's side. The White House has also stonewalled requests for information from the congressional intelligence committees.

House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers is apparently so concerned that he sent the president an unusual public letter Friday. Here's the press release:

HPSCI Chairman Mike Rogers Urges President Obama to '¨Reject President Putin's Attempt to Get a Clearer Look into US and NATO Countries

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman Mike Rogers today urged President Obama to reject a request by President Putin to upgrade Russia's technical capability for observational flights of US and NATO counties by airplane.

The United States, NATO, and Russia in 1992 signed the Open Skies Treaty. The Treaty allows the parties to conduct specific, numbered, and targeted observational airplane flights over each other's countries. Any changes to the very specific guidelines in the Treaty must be certified by all parties before they can be used.

In a letter sent to President Obama today, Chairman Rogers wrote, ''Given current world events, President Putin appears to be more than willing to disregard international norms of behavior in seeking geopolitical advantage. We should not now naively believe he will unilaterally adhere to the limitations of the Open Skies Treaty.''

Rogers said, ''Putin's attempt to upgrade Russia's sensing capabilities now is particularly problematic. I have serious concerns about the technical advantages Russia would gain.''

One source close to Rogers confirms that Rogers wouldn't have written such a letter unless the intelligence community was "very alarmed" by what seemed to be the likely White House decision.

Meanwhile, THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained the text of a letter from a bipartisan group of senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee'--addressed, interestingly, to Secretary of State Kerry, whose department has been pushing the agreement.

The Honorable John F. Kerry'¨Secretary of State'¨Department of State'¨Washington, DC 20521

Dear Mr. Secretary,

In the past few years, the Russian Federation completed construction of two new Open Skies aircraft that will support digital photograph equipment, sideways-looking synthetic aperture radar, and infrared equipment. As you know, state parties to the Open Skies Treaty must certify any new aircraft before it can be used for treaty observation flights.

We understand that an upcoming Deputies Committee meeting will address the question of Russian certification. We strongly urge you to carefully evaluate the ramifications of certification on future Open Skies observation flights and consider the equities of key U.S. Government stakeholders.

The invasion of Crimea and Moscow's ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine using subversive methods in sufficient enough to counsel further review, irrespective of any technical concerns that may exist.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this important and timely manner.

Sincerely,

Dan Coats'¨Mark W. Warner'¨James E. RischMartin Heinrich

Will President Obama overrule his own defense and intelligence officials in order to placate Vladimir Putin's Russia?

The White House and State Department have engaged in brazen lying to EU governments regarding the ability of the US to supply more than enough natural gas to replace Russian gas deliveries. Recent statements by US President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are so patently false that it betrays an incredible desperation in Washington over the situation in Ukraine versus Moscow. Or it suggests that Washington is so out of touch with any factual reality she simply doesn't care what she says. Either way, it suggests an unreliable diplomatic partner for the EU.

After his recent meeting with EU leaders Obama issued the incredible statement that the secret Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that is being secretly negotiated behind closed doors by the major private multinational companies would make it easier for the United States to export gas to Europe and help it reduce its dependency on Russian energy: ''Once we have a trade agreement in place, export licenses for projects for liquefied natural gas destined to Europe would be much easier, something that is obviously relevant in today's geopolitical environment,'' Obama stated.

That bit of political opportunism to try to push the stalled TTIP talks by playing on EU fears of Russian gas loss after the US-orchestrated Ukraine coup of February 22, ignores the fact that the problem in getting US shale gas to the EU does not lie in easier LNG licensing procedures in the USA and EU.

In other recent statements, referring to the recent boom in unconventional US shale gas, Obama and Kerry have both stated the US could more than replace all Russian gas to the EU, an outright lie based on physical realities. At his Brussels meeting Obama told EU leaders they should import shale gas from the US to replace Russian. There is a huge problem with that.

Shale revolution a failure

Number one, the ''shale gas revolution'' in the USA has failed. The dramatic rise in US natural gas production from ''fracking'' or forcing gas out of shale rock formations is being abandoned by the largest energy companies like Shell and BP as uneconomical. Shell has just announced a huge reduction of its exposure to US shale gas development. Shell is selling its leases on some 700,000 acres of shale gas lands in the major shale gas areas of Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Kansas and says it may have to get rid of more to stop its shale gas losses. Shell's CEO,Ben van Beurden stated, ''Financial performance there is frankly not acceptable '... some of our exploration bets have simply not worked out.''

A useful summary of the shale gas illusion comes from a recent analysis of the actual results of several years of shale gas extraction in the USA by veteran energy analyst David Hughes. He notes, ''Shale gas production has grown explosively to account for nearly 40 percent of US natural gas production. Nevertheless, production has been on a plateau since December 2011; eighty percent of shale gas production comes from five plays, several of which are in decline. The very high decline rates of shale gas wells require continuous inputs of capital'--estimated at $42 billion per year to drill more than 7,000 wells'--in order to maintain production. In comparison, the value of shale gas produced in 2012 was just $32.5 billion.''

So Obama is either being lied to by his advisers on the true state of US shale gas supplies, or he is willfully lying. The former is most likely.

The second problem with the US ''offer'' of gas to the EU to replace Russian gas is the fact that it requires massive, costly infrastructure in the form of construction of new Liquified Natural Gas terminals that can handle the huge LNG supertankers to bring it to similar huge LNG terminal harbors in the EU.

The problem is that owing to various US laws on export of domestic energy and supply factors, there exist no operating LNG liquefaction terminals in the US. The only one now under construction is the Sabine Pass LNG receiving terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, owned by Cheniere Energy, where John Deutch, former CIA head, sits on the board. The problem with the Sabine Pass LNG terminal is that most of the gas has been pre-contracted to Korean, Indian and other Asian LNG customers, not to the EU.

The second problem is that even were a huge port capacity installed to satisfy EU gas needs to replace Russian supplies, that would push domestic natural-gas prices higher and cut short the mini-manufacturing boom fueled by abundant, cheap shale gas. The ultimate cost to EU consumers of US LNG would have to be far more than current Russian gas pipelined over Nord Stream or Ukraine. The next problem is that the specialized LNG supertankers do not exist to supply the EU market. All this takes years, including environmental approvals, construction time, perhaps seven years on average in best conditions.

The EU gets some 30% of its gas, the fastest-growing energy source there, from Russia today. In 2007, Russia's Gazprom supplied 14 percent for France, 27 percent for Italy, 36 percent for Germany, with Finland and the Baltic states receiving as much as 100 percent of gas imports from Russia.

The EU has no realistic alternative to Russian gas. Germany, the largest economy, has foolishly decided to phase out nuclear power and its ''alternative energy'''--wind power and solar''is an economic and political disaster with consumer electricity costs exploding even though alternatives are a tiny share of the total market.

In short, the chimera of shutting Russian gas and turning on US gas instead is economic, energy and political nonsense.

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics , exclusively for the online magazine ''New Eastern Outlook''

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A new transatlantic trade deal currently under negotiation would make it easier for the United States to export gas to Europe and help it reduce its dependency on Russian energy, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday.

"Once we have a trade agreement in place, export licences for projects for liquefied natural gas destined to Europe would be much easier, something that is obviously relevant in today's geopolitical environment," Obama told a news conference after meeting EU leaders, adding that it could not happen overnight.

EU negotiators are pressing U.S. counterparts to agree to allow exports of LNG to the European Union in part to lessen its reliance on Russia, which provides about one-third of Europe's oil and gas supplies, 40 percent of it through Ukraine.

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.orgSaudi Arabia has replaced its intelligence chief, who is widely seen as the architect of the kingdom's interventionist policy on the Syrian civil war. The government-owned Saudi Press Agency announced on Tuesday that prince Bandar bin Sultan had been ''relieved of his post at his own request''. Bandar was born in 1946 to a concubine of crown prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, 12th son of Saudi monarch King Abdulaziz. In 1983, Bandar was appointed ambassador to the United States, a post he held until 2005. He developed numerous connections in Washington and rose to become a leading operator in Middle East affairs, enjoying to this day very close personal ties with Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. In 2012 he was appointed director of the Saudi Intelligence Agency, the country's primary intelligence organization. Since that time, he has been the primary planner of Riyadh's hawkish policy on the Syrian civil war, which has been to openly support the rebel groups fighting to oust the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Saudi Arabia began supplying weapons, cash and intelligence to the Syrian rebels as soon as Bandar took control of the country's intelligence apparatus. But his once close relations with Washington went sour last year, when he described US President Barack Obama's refusal to launch military strikes on Syria as a ''major shift'' in American Middle East policy. He also angered the US by criticizing it's rapprochement with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is Riyadh's major regional adversary. Perhaps most important of all, Bandar appears to have underestimated the strength of the al-Assad administration and over-confidently advising King Abdullah in 2012 that the Syrian government's days were numbered. The stalemate in the Syrian civil war seems to have frustrated the Saudi government, which began to gradually distancing itself from Bandar's musings since January. The prince has spent most of 2014 in the United States and Morocco, ostensibly for ''medical treatment''. According to Saudi government media, Bandar has been replaced ''on an interim basis'' by his deputy, Yousef al-Idrissi. Meanwhile, insiders report that the Syria file has been transferred to prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the kingdom's minister of interior. It is worth noting, however, that Bandar remains secretary general of the National Security Council, an influential advisory board that directs Saudi Arabia's national security, intelligence and foreign policy strategy.

Did Putin Blow Up the Whole Polish Government in 2010? A Second Look. - The Daily Beast

A plane crash at Smolensk in Russia four years ago wiped out the Warsaw leadership. It used to be seen as an accident. Now, after Putin's games in Ukraine, people aren't so sure.

Four years ago this week, Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash near the Katyn Forest in Russia where he was flying to honor the 22,000 Polish officers, lawyers, priests and professors slaughtered there by the Soviets 70 years before. Ninety-five other military, political and public figures including his wife died on that plane. One of the more heartbreaking details to emerge was that First Lady Maria Kaczynska's body could be identified only by her nail polish and the inscription inside her wedding ring.

Less than two years before the crash the late president had given a speech warning that if Russian aggression was not stopped in Georgia, which Russia had invaded, it would extend to Ukraine, the Baltics, and possibly Poland as well. ''We are here to take up the fight,'' he said. And many Poles still believe that their president died in the cause of that effort. Physicist Kazimierz Nowaczyk is one of them.

On April 10, 2010 at 10:41 a.m. Polish Air Force Flight 101 crashed several hundred meters short of the Smolensk runway in dense fog. Within hours the Russian government issued a statement citing the incident on pilot error. Russia's final report on the incident blamed the late President KaczyÅski and his ''inebriated'' air force commander-in-chief for using ''psychological pressure'' to force the Polish pilots to land in a low-visibility environment.

The plane's black boxes, laptops, sensitive documents, mobile phones, address books, telephone numbers, correspondence, and the top-secret military, NATO and diplomatic codes on board were salvaged from crash site immediately by the Kremlin's operatives in what was a ''coup for Russia's intelligence service'' according to retired CIA analyst Gene Poteat. What Nowaczyk calls ''years worth of work for security services'' was completed in a single day by Russia's OMON Special Purpose Police, which were immediately deployed to the site.

The airplane was a 20-year-old Russian Tupolev-154M that had been refurbished and upgraded in Russia four months before, a detail that has become the subject of considerable speculation on the many forums and groups dedicated to investigating the conspiracy theory surrounding the flight.

According to Poteat, ''Forty minutes before the crash, a Russian YAK-40 airplane with 40 people on board landed safely. Twenty minutes before the crash a Russian AWAC airplane did a touch-and-go at the airport then flew on to Moscow.''

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Nowaczyk describes the findings of an independent Polish parliamentary committee investigating the crash of which he is a member. The group consists of scientists from various backgrounds and relies only on ''scientific tools'' in its investigation, he said. But the committee was formed by Polish parliamentary factions, such as that of the late president's brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who have not found the official Polish-Russian report on the incident satisfactory.

''From our point of view this report was full of mistakes,'' Nowaczyk explains, citing various inconsistencies and contradictions in the official narrative. A key issue raised by Nowaczyk's committee and the many online forums dedicated to the crash is that the amount of debris found at the site'--an estimated 60,000 aircraft fragments'--would be impossible in the case of a simple plane crash. He cites the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the 1996 TWA 800 flight out of New York, both of which exploded in the air but had only 11,000 aircraft fragments and 3,168 fragments respectively. Both planes were reconstructed to 95 percent completion. Nowaczyk believes that an explosion caused the fragmentation of the Polish president's plane. In the official report the plane's black boxes indicate that the aircraft's electricity was cut two to three seconds before the crash, which Nowaczyk believes also was caused by that explosion.

Like many of those pursuing these theories Nowaczyk personally knew four people who died in the crash, including the late president. The Polish physicist's voice grows faint, almost pleading, ''I simply want to know the truth.''

Earlier this week'--on April 8, 2014'--Polskie Radio reported that the Polish District Military Prosecutor in Warsaw, Colonel Ireneusz Szelag, presented 1,300 pages of documentation, in advance of the four-year anniversary, ruling out ''any possibility that an explosion occurred aboard the Polish presidential plane that crashed in Smolensk on 10 April 2010.'' The prosecutor stated, ''After analysing 700 samples, experts found no traces that an explosion had taken place aboard the Tu-154 plane'... The experts had unimpeded access to the site of the catastrophe, and to the place where the wreck of the plane is being stored.'' The prosecutor stated that the investigation would be closed next year, even if the aircraft's wreckage is not returned to Poland.

That is not likely to calm the roiling tide of speculation about a conspiracy, especially in light of Putin's recent actions in Ukraine. Already last year nearly one third of the Polish population believed there was a possibility that their president had been assassinated. The number is unusually high for a conspiracy theory, suggesting just how fearful Poland is about Russian intentions.

But it is increasingly hard to separate the forensic aspects of the case from the intense political maneuvering around it in Poland. The incident has been used to fuel anti-Russian sentiment among far-right groups, to demonstrate anti-Russian credentials and to further political careers. The general public has every reason to be skeptical. Now at a time when anti-Russian sentiment is already running high, this theory could further embitter the Polish people if it continues to gather momentum and recognition.

For the majority of the country and the mainstream media, supposition that the Smolensk crash was not an accident remains a fringe theory fraught with political implications. Those who propagate it are considered paranoids or activists with an axe to grind. But Putin's performance over the last eight weeks has given the world good cause to revisit conspiracy theories, including some that only two months ago would have seemed ludicrous and absurd.

A leaflet distributed in Donetsk, Ukraine calling for all Jews over 16 years old to register as Jews marred the Jewish community's Passover festivities Monday (Passover eve), replacing them with feelings of concern.

The leaflet demanded the city's Jews supply a detailed list of all the property they own, or else have their citizenship revoked, face deportion and see their assets confiscated.

Donetsk, a Ukraine province with 4.3 million people - 10 percent of Ukraine's population - and 17,000 Jews, is home to much of the country's heavy industry, and is thus the biggest prize of the eastern regions where pro-Russian separatists have captured government buildings in the past week.

The leaflet, signed by Chairman of Donetsk's temporary government Denis Pushilin, was distrbiuted to Jews near the Donetsk synagogue and later in other areas of the city where pro-Russians activists have declared Donetsk as an independent "people's republic", defying an ultimatum from Kiev to surrender.

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The leaflet was written in Russian and had Russia's national symbol on it, as well as the Donetsk People's Republic insignia.

"Dear Ukraine citizens of Jewish nationality," the flyer began, "due to the fact that the leaders of the Jewish community of Ukraine

supported Bendery Junta," a reference to Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement which fought for Ukrainian independence at the end of World War II, "and oppose the pro-Slavic People's Republic of Donetsk, (the interim government) has decided that all citizens of Jewish descent, over 16 years of age and residing within the republic's territory are required to report to the Commissioner for Nationalities in the Donetsk Regional Administration building and register."

The leaflet detailed what type of documents the Jewish citizens would need to supply: "ID and passport are required to register your Jewish religion, religious documents of family members, as well as documents establishing the rights to all real estate property that belongs to you, including vehicles."

If the message was not made clear enough, the leaflet further stipulated the consequences that would come to those who failed to abide by the new demands: "Evasion of registration will result in citizenship revoke and you will be forced outside the country with a confiscation of property."

To add insult to injury, the leaflet demanded the Jews pay a registration fee of $50.

According to Alex Tenzer, a Kiev native and one of the directors of the National Association of Immigrants from the Former USSR in Israel, said: "The Jewish-Ukrainian leadership supports Ukraine's new government, but it's hard to tell whether the leaflet is valid or simply a provocation.

"Anyway, the material is very anti-Semitic and reminds me of the kind of material distributed by the Nazis in WWII."

Emanuelle Shechter, from Israel, received a copy of the leaflet via Whatsapp from his friends in Donetsk. "They told me that masked men were waiting for Jewish people after the Passover eve prayer, handed them the flyer and told them to obey its instructions."

Olga Reznikova, a member of Donetsk's Jewish community, told Ynet that "we do not know if the leaflet was spread by pro-Russian forces or someone else, but it did manage to create quite a fear. This reminds me of texts from darker times. Other members of the Jewish community I spoke with are not afraid, but it is unpleasant.

"I do not intend to register, I am 32, I have lived in Donetsk my entire life and have never had to deal with anti-Semitism until I laid eyes on this piece of paper. Though I take it very seriously, I am uncertain of its authenticity."

Jenia from Israel, who also received the letter from a Jewish acquaintance, said "the Jews in Donetsk are uncertain of anything; it is unclear who is responsible for the leaflet and who controls the city at the moment.

"We don't feel safe like we used to because of the political instability in the area; there isn't a legitimate president or sovereign. Currently Donetsk is ruled by a junta."

In a response to a request by a Ukrainian Jewish website, Pushilin, the interim government's regional chairman, confirmed that the flyers were distributed by his organization, but denied any connection to the leaflet's content.

Open-Source Software Implementation of a DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) Receiver under the GNU General Public License (GPL)

IntroductionDigital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is the digital radio standard for the long-, medium- and short-wave ranges (DRM30) and the VHF Band (DRM+). The standard was formed by a consortium in co-operation with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The system offers the radio stations and new service providers access to the multimedia age for all kind of radio stations, from high power broadcasters with large target areas and long distances reception to low power line-of-sight broadcasters. For more information visit www.drm.org.

The bandwidth of a DRM bandpass signal is less than 20 kHz in the DRM30 mode and less than 100kHz in the DRM+ mode, and the number of carriers used in the OFDM-modulation is relatively small. These features motivate a real-time software implementation of a DRM-receiver for conventional personal computer (PC) or smartphones/tablets using affordable input devices like the FunCubeDongle Pro+ or a sound card connected to a standard radio receiver with an IF ouput.

This software project implements a working software DRM30 receiver with, at least, the basic features (DRM+ support is planned). Since this project was created at a university and the fundamental idea of such an institution is to teach and stimulate the creativity, this source-code is free under the GNU-General Public License (GPL). Dream is a development project which uses the open source model to improve DRM technology. The main aim of this project is to implement and test new research results on an existing system, whereby the synchronization and channel estimation is of special interest.

The programming-language is C++. The code runs under Mac OSX, Microsoft Windows and Linux. Start of the project was June 2001.

Although this software is distributed as free software under the terms of the GPL this does not mean that its use is free of rights of others. The use may infringe third party IP and thus may not be legal in some countries.

The intended audience of the Dream software are people who are interested in how to decode a DRM stream and want to learn from the algorithms used in this software and people who want to help us improving the performance of the receiver and the source code.

If you just want to get the experience of DRM digital sound quality and expect a very stable and optimized receiver performance, we recommend to buy the commercial DRM Software Radio.

Features and User GuideDream's features have grown over the years, but have never been properly documented. Hopefully we can fix this.

HardwareDream runs on virtually any pc and requires a receiver front-end to work as a real radio.

Source CodeThe source code is hosted at Sourceforge.net. Binary files of the software are provided without audio codecs compiled in, since parts of the software may be subject to patent royalties in some countries. If you want to provide pre-compiled binaries based on this source, please consider this issue. We do not warrant for nor indemnify you in any way for patent infringement. You are solely responsible for your own actions.

InstallationBinaries for windows and linux are available from 1.14 onwards. The needed DLLs/shared libraries are included in the archive but this probably won't get you the working Dream you need.

For licence reasons the distributed binaries don't include an AAC codec. The binaries look for a codec and try to load it at run time.

Instructions for building the AAC decoder

Instructions for building the AAC encoder

WindowsThe zip files in the download area contain all DLLs needed to make the program run, but you will want the rig specific Hamlib libraries to control a rig and the AAC decoder DLL.

Linux32 and 64 bit Linux builds are created using the OpenSUSE build system. Repositories are now available for several distributions.

DebianDebian 6.0 (squeeze) and Debian 7.0 (wheezy) are supported. Add the repository and then install as normal.

For 10.04 the repository url is http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/juliancable:/branches:/home:/juliancable/xUbuntu_10.04. This may work for 10.10, 11.04 and 11.10.

MacThe DMG contains a 32 bit intel only application built on Snow Leopard.

Trouble ShootingPlease post your installation support questions in the public forum

The most common problem is that dream runs but won't decode audio. It may look like dream is decoding the FAC and SDC but not the MSC but this is an artifact of the way the MSC 'LED' is driven on the front panel.

On Windows Dream looks for faad2_drm.dll in the directory dream is run from. If it doesn't find it everything will work except decoding audio. Instructions for building the AAC decoder from source are on this wiki.

In 1.17 we have improved the GUI so it is easy to see if the problem is there:

This is what dream 1.16 looked like if faad2_drm.dll was missing:

You can double check by looking for the text "no audio decoding possible" on the Evaluation window:

Building from sourceDetailed instructions for building Dream on a number of platforms are available:

Older instructions for the Mac are here, but are somewhat outdated.AuxiliariesScreen shots, sample files, the current AM Broadcast Schedule etc. are available on the General page.

DesignThere is some information on the Software Design.

ForumsDream is on its third generation of forums. Originally the sourceforge default forums were used. These were replaced by the much better Invision board. When sourceforge moved to MySQL5/PHP5 these forums became unmaintainable. The content of the Old Forums has been archived on this wiki.

The active forums are here.

Other DRM Software at this siteThis project is also the home for a number of other DRM related software projects including:

DisclaimersTRADEMARKS: The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES:This site contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the content of any linked Web site.

If you are a computer geek like me, the first thing you will think about when I tell you ''DRM'' is ''Digital Rights Management''. You know, this process that consists in giving you both encrypted content and the keys to decrypt it, but in a really obfuscated way to attempt to discourage you from doing the decryption yourself'... anyway, this is not the subject of this post. The DRM I want to talk about today is ''Digital Radio Mondiale''. A strange acronym choice if you ask me, but there you go'...

So what is ''DRM'' ? It is an attempt at keeping shortwave broadcast radio live and kicking, by broadcasting in digital format rather than using amplitude modulation. Gone are the days of listening to ''Radio France International'', ''BBC World Service'' or ''Voice of America'' hunched over a small SW radio, trying to make out what was being said over the static'... I will always remember a conversation in China back in 1997 when I clumsily tried to understand what sort of ideas my Chinese student friends had about Tibet, and the comment I got was ''ah ah, my friend, you sound like you have been listening to Voice of America propaganda too much''. But I digress.

DRM uses AAC audio at a low bitrate '' 16kbps mono, typically '' and is able to stream data and basic text, in a manner similar to RDS. DRM in itself is a pretty well defined standard, and you can read all about it at http://www.drm.org/ but it is not widely used yet. As a bystander, it looks like getting agreement on standardisation of shortwave radio broadcasts is an extremely difficult and lengthy exercise: you have to get dozens of countries to agree and cooperate to broadcast information all over the globe, not hard to see why this can take time.

This means that the number of broadcasts today is actually fairly limited, and the number of commercially available shortwave receivers with DRM capabilities is even more limited, but the good news is that if you have a computer and a shortwave radio receiver with an IQ output, you will be able to listen to DRM fairly easily using an Open Source reference receiver implementation called ''Dream''. You can head over tho the wiki referenced in that link to learn more about it and install it.

This is where things get a bit hairy: I mentioned above that DRM uses AAC: AAC is not license free, and for some strange reason, the DRM consortium chose it over other similar open codecs. This means that the downloadable versions of Dream do not contain what is needed to actually listen to DRM'...

On a Mac, this means you will have to install libaac using homebrew '' easy '' but you will then need to compile Dream yourself since the binary on the Dream wiki is 32 bits only and all current Macs run a 64 bit OS, and the libaac you just compiled will be a 64bits lib. Yeah, I know, it's a bit of a pain, but compilation works OK '' I had to do a few nudges and updates to the code to make compile to the end, but I eventually managed.

Below is a screenshot of Dream running on my Mac: I have tuned my KX3 to a currently broadcasting station '' Radio New Zealand '' and listening to it on the computer. Dream is able to download the worldwide broadcast able by itself, and even tune your radio automatically if it is compatible with Hamlib!

Dream DRM decoder

The radio panel and various controls on the bottom is the web control interface of my radio, a work in progress and not something that is publicly available at this stage.

Dream is configured to use the I/Q output of the radio, channel is set to ''I/Q Neg Zero'', and the sound device is the built-in input of the Mac: on my machine, Dream seems to have a bug and I need to select the entry directly above the one I actually want to use for both sound input and output, so if you have trouble, you might want to check this.

The upper right window is the spectrum output coming from the radio: you can see the DRM stream with its very characteristic visual signature, and lots of technical info on the decoder. The upper left window show the name of the station and radio text.

Sound quality is actually surprisingly good, as long as you have a decent signal! I would not go as far as saying it is worth going through all this trouble just to listen to radio '' there are definitely easier ways to do it in 2014 '' , but the whole exercise is a good technical learning experience, and I will definitely be happy if I can listen to good audio quality western propaganda broadcasts next time I visit China!

Canada police nab young man in Heartbleed data theft56 minutes agoA Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer checks a security perimeter in front of the Parliament building in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on February 19, 2009

Federal police said Wednesday they have arrested and charged a 19-year-old man in the theft of 900 Canadian taxpayers' data, which was made vulnerable by the "Heartbleed" bug.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes was arrested at his London, Ontario home on Tuesday without incident.

He is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday to face charges of mischief and unauthorized use of a computer to steal data from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)'s website.

"It is believed that Solis-Reyes was able to extract private information held by the CRA by exploiting the security vulnerability known as the Heartbleed Bug," the RCMP said in a statement.

The suspect was tracked down within four days after what CRA Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud had described as a serious security breach.

Police said computer equipment was seized at the suspect's home, and that the investigation is still ongoing.

The Canada Revenue Agency said 900 social insurance numbers'--personal nine-digit codes required for working or accessing government benefits in Canada'--had been stolen last week by "someone exploiting the Heartbleed vulnerability."

Its website was shuttered for several days over concerns about the Heartbleed bug.

British parenting website Mumsnet is the latest organisation to have been hacked due to the "Heartbleed" bug, founder Justine Roberts revealed on Monday.

'Heartbleed' bug a critical Internet illness Apr 11, 2014

The "Heartbleed" flaw in Internet security is as critical as the name implies and wider spread than first believed. Warnings about the danger exposed early this week reached widening circles on Thursday, with everyone from website o ...

NSA denies exploiting 'Heartbleed' vulnerability Apr 11, 2014

The US National Security Agency on Friday denied a report claiming it was aware of and even exploited the "Heartbleed" online security flaw to gather critical intelligence.

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Some 18 percent of US Internet users have had important personal data such as bank account information stolen and the problem appears to be getting worse, a survey showed Monday.

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Germany's aeronautics and space research centre has for months been the target of a suspected cyber attack by a foreign intelligence service, a German news weekly reported Sunday.

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Review: Forward to the past with Windows updateEven as Microsoft prepares for a future dominated by touch-screen devices, it is steering its Windows system to embrace more of the past.

Quantenna promises 10-gigabit Wi-Fi by next year(Phys.org) '--Quantenna Communications has announced that it has plans for releasing a chipset that will be capable of delivering 10Gbps WiFi to/from routers, bridges and computers by sometime next year. ...

Patent talk: Google sharpens contact lens vision(Phys.org) '--A report from Patent Bolt brings us one step closer to what Google may have in mind in developing smart contact lenses. According to the discussion Google is interested in the concept of contact ...

Floating nuclear plants could ride out tsunamisWhen an earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant complex in 2011, neither the quake nor the inundation caused the ensuing contamination. Rather, it was the aftereffects'--specifically, ...

Computers beat brainpower when it comes to counting starsA team of University of Sydney astronomers has developed a new way to automatically classify huge numbers of astronomical objects, and to discover new, exotic ones almost as soon as they happen.

Information storage for the next generation of plastic computersInexpensive computers, cell phones and other systems that substitute flexible plastic for silicon chips may be one step closer to reality, thanks to research published on April 16 in the journal Nature Communications.

Red moon at night; stargazer's delightMonday night's lunar eclipse proved just as delightful as expected to those able to view it. On the East Coast, cloudy skies may have gotten in the way, but at the National Science Foundation's National Optical ...

Two new species of yellow-shouldered bats endemic to the NeotropicsLying forgotten in museum collections two new species of yellow-shouldered bats have been unearthed by scientists at the American Museum of New York and The Field Museum of Natural History and described in ...

Obesity can amplify bone and muscle loss, researchers sayFlorida State University researchers have identified a new syndrome called "osteosarcopenic obesity" that links the deterioration of bone density and muscle mass with obesity.

Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions.(C) Phys.org' 2003-2013, Science X network

Canada police nab young man in Heartbleed data theft56 minutes agoA Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer checks a security perimeter in front of the Parliament building in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on February 19, 2009

Federal police said Wednesday they have arrested and charged a 19-year-old man in the theft of 900 Canadian taxpayers' data, which was made vulnerable by the "Heartbleed" bug.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes was arrested at his London, Ontario home on Tuesday without incident.

He is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday to face charges of mischief and unauthorized use of a computer to steal data from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)'s website.

"It is believed that Solis-Reyes was able to extract private information held by the CRA by exploiting the security vulnerability known as the Heartbleed Bug," the RCMP said in a statement.

The suspect was tracked down within four days after what CRA Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud had described as a serious security breach.

Police said computer equipment was seized at the suspect's home, and that the investigation is still ongoing.

The Canada Revenue Agency said 900 social insurance numbers'--personal nine-digit codes required for working or accessing government benefits in Canada'--had been stolen last week by "someone exploiting the Heartbleed vulnerability."

Its website was shuttered for several days over concerns about the Heartbleed bug.

British parenting website Mumsnet is the latest organisation to have been hacked due to the "Heartbleed" bug, founder Justine Roberts revealed on Monday.

'Heartbleed' bug a critical Internet illness Apr 11, 2014

The "Heartbleed" flaw in Internet security is as critical as the name implies and wider spread than first believed. Warnings about the danger exposed early this week reached widening circles on Thursday, with everyone from website o ...

NSA denies exploiting 'Heartbleed' vulnerability Apr 11, 2014

The US National Security Agency on Friday denied a report claiming it was aware of and even exploited the "Heartbleed" online security flaw to gather critical intelligence.

Recommended for you

'Heartbleed' fix may slow Web performance 23 hours ago

The heartache from the Heartbleed Internet flaw is not over, and some experts say the fix may lead to online disruption and confusion.

(Phys.org) '--As companies scrambled in recent days to address the latest cybersecurity bug known as Heartbleed, researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas had a solution that fixes the vulnerability, ...

18% of US Internet users had data stolen, survey finds Apr 14, 2014

Some 18 percent of US Internet users have had important personal data such as bank account information stolen and the problem appears to be getting worse, a survey showed Monday.

Nicole Braun, who will be graduating in May with a PhD in Information Systems, set out to understand why many home users do not adequately protect themselves online, despite extensive media coverage about the risks.

German space research centre under espionage attack Apr 13, 2014

Germany's aeronautics and space research centre has for months been the target of a suspected cyber attack by a foreign intelligence service, a German news weekly reported Sunday.

NSC backs disclosing software vulnerabilities Apr 13, 2014

Disclosing vulnerabilities in commercial and open source software is in the national interest and shouldn't be withheld from the public unless there is a clear national security or law enforcement need, President Barack Obama's ...

User comments : 0More news stories

Microsoft CEO is driving data-culture mindset(Phys.org) '--Microsoft's future strategy: is all about leveraging data, from different sources, coming together using one cohesive Microsoft architecture. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday, both in ...

Review: Forward to the past with Windows updateEven as Microsoft prepares for a future dominated by touch-screen devices, it is steering its Windows system to embrace more of the past.

Quantenna promises 10-gigabit Wi-Fi by next year(Phys.org) '--Quantenna Communications has announced that it has plans for releasing a chipset that will be capable of delivering 10Gbps WiFi to/from routers, bridges and computers by sometime next year. ...

Patent talk: Google sharpens contact lens vision(Phys.org) '--A report from Patent Bolt brings us one step closer to what Google may have in mind in developing smart contact lenses. According to the discussion Google is interested in the concept of contact ...

Floating nuclear plants could ride out tsunamisWhen an earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant complex in 2011, neither the quake nor the inundation caused the ensuing contamination. Rather, it was the aftereffects'--specifically, ...

Computers beat brainpower when it comes to counting starsA team of University of Sydney astronomers has developed a new way to automatically classify huge numbers of astronomical objects, and to discover new, exotic ones almost as soon as they happen.

Information storage for the next generation of plastic computersInexpensive computers, cell phones and other systems that substitute flexible plastic for silicon chips may be one step closer to reality, thanks to research published on April 16 in the journal Nature Communications.

Red moon at night; stargazer's delightMonday night's lunar eclipse proved just as delightful as expected to those able to view it. On the East Coast, cloudy skies may have gotten in the way, but at the National Science Foundation's National Optical ...

Two new species of yellow-shouldered bats endemic to the NeotropicsLying forgotten in museum collections two new species of yellow-shouldered bats have been unearthed by scientists at the American Museum of New York and The Field Museum of Natural History and described in ...

Obesity can amplify bone and muscle loss, researchers sayFlorida State University researchers have identified a new syndrome called "osteosarcopenic obesity" that links the deterioration of bone density and muscle mass with obesity.

Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions.(C) Phys.org' 2003-2013, Science X network

You've probably never heard of CVE-2014-0160. But you probably have heard of the Heartbleed bug, the "catastrophic" security hole that was revealed in half a million websites earlier this week.

It's perfect for welcoming the masses to Heartbleed.com.The two are one in the same--except for one small point: CVE-2014-0160 is an esoteric corner of code that most of the world could never understand. And Heartbleed is a catchy, scary brand that features one heck of a jarring logo.

Heartbleed was branded by the international security company Codenomicon, which if extraordinary coincidence is to be believed, independently discovered the CVE-2014-0160 OpenSSL exploit on the same day as Google researcher Neel Mehta.

The only part of the story that's certain is how Codenomicon scored the credit for unearthing the bug: by branding the crap out of it, an approach the company dubbed Bugs 2.0. Most security holes like CVE-2014-0160 would be posted on messageboards read only by the coding and hacking community. Here, a Codenomicon engineer came up with the name Heartbleed--inspired by a tangentially related piece of software called Heartbeat--and quickly thereafter, Codenomicon registered Heartbleed.com, designed sleek FAQs explaining the bug, and accompanied it with a logo by Codenomicon designer Leena Snidate.

Deep blood red. Because it's talking about a heart that's bleeding. Heartbleed is not a clever logo, no, but it's not going for clever. Its power is in sheer, bold literalness--the visual equivalent of talking slowly to a slack-jawed luddite audience that has no clue what the hell CVE-2014-0160 means. And in that regard, it's perfect for its purpose of welcoming the masses to Heartbleed.com and assuring us, yes, you've come to the right corner of the Internet, you idiot. In return, Codenomicon is forever associated with being the solution to what will likely go down as one of the greatest security oversights in Internet history. Plus they get a halo effect to, not just their peers in the security community, but all of the laypeople who barely understand what's even going on in the first place.Don't be surprised if the next major bug has many names and many logos.

Don't be surprised if the next major bug has many names and many logos, all linked by private security companies looking to cash in first on the free press. But at the end of the day, is this branding really a bad thing?

''I am proud we have been able to share this information to the world in a digestible fashion,'' Snidate writes. ''Our mission is to make your digital world safer. We believe we have taken a small step in the right direction.''

The lawyer of a 19-year-old London, Ont., man charged with exploiting the Heartbleed bug to steal over 900 SIN numbers says his client has been devastated by the arrest.

Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes, a student at Western University and the son of Roberto Solis-Oba who teaches computer science at Western, was arrested late Tuesday afternoon. The RCMP says Solis-Reyes is charged with one count of unauthorized use of a computer and one count of mischief in relation to data.

''He is an 'A' student and a very, very bright young man,'' Solis-Reyes's lawyer Faisal Joseph said.

Joseph said he his client was too emotional to speak about the charges against him on Tuesday night, and police haven't told him anything, either.

''I don't have any evidence,'' he said.

Joseph said his client voluntarily turned himself in to police on Tuesday, after officers threatened to arrest him in the middle of one of his classes. Days earlier, Joseph said, RCMP officers served a warrant at Solis-Reyes's house at around 1 a.m., but left without advising of a charge.

Joseph also alleges police kept Solis-Reyes in custody for over five hours without access to a lawyer on Tuesday, something he said he'll file a complaint about.

Solis-Reyes is set to appear in an Ottawa court on July 17, when the RCMP is set to lay out its case against him.

Until then, Joseph said, Solis-Reyes's family has been ''absolutely devastated'' by the charges.

The RCMP allege that Solis-Reyes was able to extract the private information from the CRA by exploiting the Heartbleed security vulnerability in the OpenSSL encryption software used by many internet servers.

Computer equipment was seized from Solis-Reyes's home, the RCMP said.

The CRA temporarily shut down some access to its website late on April 8 in response to security concerns about the Heartbleed bug. This security flaw in its website encryption left it vulnerable to hackers.

The CRA says it realized last Friday that 900 social insurance numbers had been stolen during a six-hour attack. The agency notified the privacy commissioner on Friday and referred the matter to the RCMP. But the breach was only made public on Monday.

The RCMP said this week it had asked the CRA not to tell Canadians on Friday about the breach so the force could look into a "viable" lead in their investigation.

"The RCMP treated this breach of security as a high-priority case and mobilized the necessary resources to resolve the matter as quickly as possible," Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud said in a statement released Wednesday to announce the arrest.

Solis-Reyes is scheduled to appear in court in Ottawa on July 17 and could face a maximum of 10 years in prison if found guilty.

Less than a month after announcing its plan to abandon U.S. protection of the open Internet in 2015, the White House has stepped back from the abyss. Following objections by Bill Clinton, a warning letter from 35 Republican senators, and critical congressional hearings, the administration now says the change won't happen for years, if ever.

''We can extend the contract for up to four years,'' Assistant Commerce Secretary Lawrence Strickling told Congress last week, referring to the agreement under which the U.S. retains ultimate control over the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as Icann. If the administration makes good on that reassurance, it would punt the decision to 2019 and the next president.

Mr. Strickling originally linked the end of U.S. control to the September 2015 expiration date of the current Icann agreement. He backtracked at a Hudson Institute conference last week: ''We did not intend that to be a deadline after which 'bad things' would happen. There has been some misapprehension that we were trying to impose a deadline on this process. We weren't.'' Fadi Chehade, Icann's CEO, agreed. ''There is no deadline,'' he said. ''The U.S. has many years on the contract.''

In an interview, Mr. Chehade assured me that he understands why supporters of the open Internet want the U.S. to retain its oversight role, which keeps countries like Russia and China from meddling. ''I'm worried, too,'' he said. ''There's no question that governments like power and certain governments will always try to take control of the Internet, so we will have to be careful.''

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc updated its terms of service on Monday, informing users that their incoming and outgoing emails are automatically analyzed by software to create targeted ads.

The revisions more explicitly spell out the manner in which Google software scans users' emails, both when messages are stored on Google's servers and when they are in transit, a controversial practice that has been at the heart of litigation.

Last month, a U.S. judge decided not to combine several lawsuits that accused Google of violating the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of email users into a single class action.

Users of Google's Gmail email service have accused the company of violating federal and state privacy and wiretapping laws by scanning their messages so it could compile secret profiles and target advertising. Google has argued that users implicitly consented to its activity, recognizing it as part of the email delivery process.

Google spokesman Matt Kallman said in a statement that the changes "will give people even greater clarity and are based on feedback we've received over the last few months."

Google's updated terms of service added a paragraph stating that "our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc updated its terms of service on Monday, informing users that their incoming and outgoing emails are automatically analyzed by software to create targeted ads.

The revisions more explicitly spell out the manner in which Google software scans users' emails, both when messages are stored on Google's servers and when they are in transit, a controversial practice that has been at the heart of litigation.

Last month, a U.S. judge decided not to combine several lawsuits that accused Google of violating the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of email users into a single class action.

Users of Google's Gmail email service have accused the company of violating federal and state privacy and wiretapping laws by scanning their messages so it could compile secret profiles and target advertising. Google has argued that users implicitly consented to its activity, recognizing it as part of the email delivery process.

Google spokesman Matt Kallman said in a statement that the changes "will give people even greater clarity and are based on feedback we've received over the last few months."

Google's updated terms of service added a paragraph stating that "our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored.

"It appears to be related to a date configuration. So, if you reset your iOS device to yesterday's date it would work.

This could indicate that the issue is linked to an expired digital certificate.

However, changing the data setting can cause other problems. For example the owner becomes unable to access Apple's App Store.

It also fails to fix streams in either the iPlayer app or via the service's website.

A message on the BBC's website said: "We are aware of reports from users encountering an 'Insufficient Bandwidth' error message when attempting to play programmes through the iPad app. This is currently under investigation and we will update this FAQ when we obtain further information."

A spokesman for the corporation noted that shows could still be downloaded, rather than streamed, but was unable to provide more details.

Game of ThronesThis is the second technical fault that Now TV has experienced this month.

Sky's subscription service - which targets people who do not subscribe to its satellite TV channels - crashed during the first episode of the latest Game Of Thrones season.

Mr Katz said this was caused by a separate problem created by the challenge of servicing a large audience watching the same content simultaneously.

"Last Monday was exacerbated by the fact that we had a football match on at the same time," he explained.

"The sheer demand means we have to keep on improving our processes.

"This is technically challenging.

"If you have large numbers of people watching Liverpool-Man City concurrently and Game of Thrones at the same time it's obviously going to put a much larger strain on our technical capability than people dipping in and out of [Netflix's] House of Cards, Orange is the New Black or any of those series."

The HBO Go app also crashed while showing the same Game of Thrones episode to US audiences.

1 of 2. A man walks past the headquarters of IBM Japan in Tokyo March 18, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Toru Hanai

(Reuters) - IBM Corp, the world's biggest technology services company, reported its lowest quarterly revenue in five years on Wednesday, as Big Blue struggles with falling demand for its hardware and faces challenges in growth markets like China.

Shares of IBM fell as much as 4 percent to $188.20 in after-hours trade.

Revenue for the Armonk, NY-based firm fell 4 percent to $22.5 billion in the first quarter, below analysts' average estimate of $22.91 billion.

"They have had eight revenue declines in a row," said Fred Hickey, editor of The High-Tech Strategist newsletter, which is widely read by investors. "They have missed so many times, it's hard to keep track of it."

IBM's first-quarter revenue was the lowest the company reported since the first quarter of 2009, when revenue was $21.71 billion.

IBM has been restructuring its business and laying-off workers in efforts to achieve its targeted operating earnings of $20 per share by 2015. In January, the company agreed to sell its low-end server business to Chinese PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd for $2.3 billion in January.

The company on Wednesday reiterated its full-year operating earnings target of $18 per share.

"They used to be a leader," said Hickey, who has followed IBM for 30 years. "Now they sell one business after the next. That is not a way to grow."

All segments of IBM's systems and technology business reported double-digit declines, led by the System z segment that was sold to Lenovo, which fell 40 percent.

The company warned that its hardware business may continue to face hurdles.

"As we look to the balance of 2014, we continue to expect good performance in the key growth areas, though our overall revenue growth will be impacted by the challenges in our hardware business," Chief Financial Officer Martin Schroeter said on a conference call.

CHINA WOES

Revenue in the Americas fell 4 percent, while revenue in the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China declined 11 percent, led by China where revenue fell by 20 percent.

Although IBM books only about 5 percent of its sales in China, declining revenue over the last three quarters has been dragging down the company's emerging markets business overall.

Chief Executive Ginni Rometty has visited China on two occasions in the last three months, seeking to restore trust with Chinese regulators in the wake of last year's revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden of spying. That has undercut business at some U.S.-based multinationals operating in the world's second-biggest economy.

In February, Rometty held meetings with Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Wang Yang, who is responsible for helping to formulate China's economic policy.

"We expect it will take some time for our business in China to improve," Schroeter said.

Software was the only major business to show some growth, with revenue rising 1.6 percent to $5.66 billion, but the growth rate was slower than the fourth quarter's 2.8 percent.

Last month, the technology research firm Gartner reported that IBM lost its spot as the world's No. 2 software make behind Microsoft Corp. Oracle Corp claimed that spot, which IBM had held for years.

"They are not yet getting the kind of lift off of software that they would need to pump up overall IBM revenues into positive growth territory," Forrester analyst Andrew Bartels said.

BETTING ON CLOUD

IBM plans to spend more than $1.2 billion to expand its web-based software products, better known as cloud computing.

IBM said its cloud revenue was up more than 50 percent in the quarter. The annual run rate of cloud delivered as a service doubled from last year to $2.3 billion.

Moving to the cloud allows businesses to cut costs by ditching bulky servers for network-based software and using remote data centers run by technology companies.

In January, IBM said it will invest more than $1 billion to establish a new business unit for Watson - the supercomputer system that beat humans on the television quiz show "Jeopardy" - deployed on SoftLayer cloud computing infrastructure business the company bought last year.

The global cloud services market last year grew by almost a fifth to an estimated $131 billion, according to research firm Gartner. IBM Markets Intelligence estimates the market could be as big as $200 billion by 2020.

"We don't see where the upside is going to come, unless there is something major -- a major restructuring or other major change," Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer with Solaris Asset Management, which helps manage some $1.5 billion, told Reuters.

Ghriskey said Watson has yet to yield any blockbuster products capable of turning around the revenue declines. "Watson is a way to give them visibility, something for salesmen to talk about."

Q1 PROFIT FALLS

IBM's first-quarter net profit fell to $2.38 billion, or $2.29 per share, from $3.03 billion, or $2.70 per share, a year earlier.

The results included a $870 million charge related to job cuts, the company said.

On an adjusted basis, the company earned $2.54 per share.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of $2.54 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The stock, which gained 4.6 percent over the last three months, closed at $196.40 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.

(Additional reporting by Marina Lopes in New York, Jim Finkle in Boston, Matthew Miller in Beijing; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Leslie Adler)

Wall Street gave Yahoo stock a big boost today '-- largely due to the stellar quarterly performance of China's Alibaba, in which the Silicon Valley Internet giant has a big stake.

Also encouraging was a slight increase in core revenue after many quarters of decline, although a one percent rise pales in comparison to current industry averages and is downright depressing next to the hair-on-fire recent results at both Google and Facebook.

While a lot of the chatter about Yahoo's latest financials seems focused on increasing display advertising sales '-- which went up two percent in Yahoo's first quarter '-- sources inside the company say the big focus for truly turbocharging revenue will be an aggressive effort being led by CEO Marissa Mayer and Adam Cahan, its SVP of mobile and emerging products, around search.

And, according to sources, the lodestone of two internal projects aimed at building a viable mobile search engine and monetization platform is to convince Apple to make Yahoo the default search engine on its Safari browser on the iPhone and iPad.

Currently, Google is set as the default search on Apple's mobile devices, but you can change it to either Yahoo or Microsoft's Bing by adjusting certain device settings.

Mayer aims to change that. A number of Yahoo insiders I have talked to said her plan to pitch Apple on the idea as its marquee mobile search partner is far along. The company has prepared detailed decks, including images of what such a search product would look like, and hopes to present them to Apple execs.

That has not happened as yet officially and no deal is imminent '-- it's just the big honking goal of the new Yahoo effort, said sources. Still, several said Mayer has already buttonholed a few Apple executives on the topic, including its powerful SVP of design, Jony Ive, who knows the former Google exec well.

''This is the aim of the whole effort here, to grab the pole position in iOS search,'' said one person working on the effort. ''It will take more than pretty pictures, though, to convince Apple to give up Google, given its focus on consumer experience being top-notch. But Marissa wants it very badly.''

Mayer has shown a willingness to take on Google already, with advanced efforts under way to create a rival to YouTube, focusing on more professional content rather than user-generated. The company has been signing up partners for the service, with enticements of revenue guarantees and more. Many video makers are unhappy with the deals they currently get from YouTube and Mayer is essentially rubbing salt in those wounds.

She'll have the cash to do more soon, as Alibaba goes public later this year, yielding Yahoo billions since it has to sell almost half of its 24 percent stake.

Thus, being spent on bringing back search to Yahoo.

Apple has long had a good relationship with Yahoo, which Mayer hopes to further improve. Yahoo already is the default data source on the iPhone for the device's stocks and weather apps, the latter of which is a very slick and attractive piece of technology.

But search is Mt. Everest by comparison, especially since Google does a very good job already, is well-liked by consumers and, perhaps most of all, pays Apple upward of a $1 billion a year in fees for the business it engenders.

The even bigger issue, according to those familiar with the plan, is that Yahoo still does not have adequate technology to mount such a serious effort, despite its many attempts to build such technology in the past.

Its most recent foray into the area was Axis, a mobile browser for iOS devices that debuted in mid-2012 under the leadership of former Yahoo exec Shashi Seth. At the time, I liked it, describing it thus:

''It's a slick offering, which essentially eliminates the texty link-filled search page for one of pretty visual tiles and pull-downs and more. Think Pinterest of search and you have the general idea.''

Despite other decent reviews, there was little uptake for it, and Yahoo whacked it a year later.

But Mayer did not move off search, an area she knows well from her many years in charge of product development in that arena at Google. Her aim: To move Yahoo squarely into competition with both Google and Microsoft in an attempt to regain control over a key revenue stream.

She ordered up two under-the-radar initiatives '-- Fast Break and Curveball '-- to get the company back into algorithmic search as well as search advertising.

Sources said the plan is being done as part of a contemplation of how Yahoo can accelerate the end of '-- or actually end '-- its longterm search and advertising partnership with Microsoft.

But rather than focusing on the Web and keywords, which Yahoo is contractually bound to allow Microsoft to serve under a 10-year search and advertising partnership deal, Mayer is aiming all this toward mobile and contextual search.

As I have pointed out before, there is a big loophole here for Mayer, since it is not included in Yahoo's agreement with Microsoft to provide search and search advertising technology.

Yahoo execs have not run from our scoop that they were doubling down in search again.

In a recent interview in Advertising Age, for example, Americas head Ned Brody played coy and loud-and-clear at the same time:

Ad Age: You've mentioned search a few times during this conversation. Re/code has reported that Yahoo is planning to bring back search technology in a big way. What's the thinking?

Mr. Brody: Search is an amazing product, and search needs to continue to evolve for consumers and for advertisers. I think we're committed to figuring that out.

Ad Age: Figuring that out but still in partnership with Microsoft? Or will we see Yahoo make a big independent play?

Mr. Brody: We are committed to figuring it out.

Interestingly, since last year, Bing has been powering Apple's Siri voice control search on the iPhone and iPad.

Whether Mayer can build adequate mobile search technology to satisfy Apple's exacting standards around user experience remains to be seen. Execs there like Eddy Cue, who is in charge of software and services, have noted that they will not remove Google as default until there is a comparable alternative. So far, they don't seem to think there is.

But there is no question the company certainly has been trying to remove default Google apps and services from its devices over the years, including dumping maps and YouTube.

So why not search as well? While there is an existing contract that extends into next year between Apple and Google, said sources, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that there's a flexible renewal clause.

Or, more precisely, a non-renewal out.

The idea has certainly been kicked around for a while, most recently with some positing that Apple would eventually replace Google search with Bing. In a piece titled ''The Google-Free iPhone'', my BFF M.G. Siegler pointed out the obvious:

''Apple is directly responsible for billions of dollars being sent Google's way via search on its devices. This will only continue to increase. It's believed that Google makes more money off of iOS devices through search than they do through Android devices. In other words, Apple is indirectly subsidizing a portion of the major war against itself. Yep.''

Yep. That thought has clearly occurred to Mayer.

Google and Apple reps declined to comment and I am awaiting comment from Yahoo.

However, Google continues to struggle with its ability to charge advertisers higher prices for mobile ads, which are increasingly important with more and more consumers accessing Google's browser through their smartphones.

Advertisers have proven reluctant to pay as much for ads on mobile screens compared to Google's bread-and-butter desktop ads, which have been the main revenue generator at the firm.

TweetShare thisEmailPrint1 of 2. A Google logo is reflected on the screen of a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone in this file photo illustration taken in Prague January 31, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/David W Cerny/Files

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc's first-quarter revenue fell short of Wall Street targets and margins narrowed as the price of its ads continued to decline, pushing its shares sharply lower.

Shares of Google were down 5.7 percent at $525 in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

The number of "paid clicks" by consumers on Google's ads increased by 26 percent in the first quarter, disappointing some analysts that had hoped for stronger volume growth. And the average "cost per click" declined 9 percent, extending a downward trend as mobile advertising, typically cheaper than traditional online ads, make up a bigger slice of its business.

"It's an average quarter from a great company," said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis. "It's the same old story. Paid clicks were a little lighter than people might have hoped, CPC declines were a little higher than people would have liked, expenses continued to rise."

Operating income slipped to 32 percent of revenue on an adjusted basis, from 34 percent in the year-ago period.

Google's core Internet business revenue climbed 19 percent to $15.42 billion in the first quarter from $12.95 billion in the year-ago period.

It posted $3.45 billion in net income, or $5.04 per share, in the three months ended March 31, compared to $3.35 billion, or $4.97 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding certain items, Google earned $6.27 per share.

Google reported a $198 million net loss from "discontinued operations," which includes the Motorola smartphone business. Google announced plans in January to sell the money-losing business to China's Lenovo Group for $2.91 billion.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang)

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Why isn't Google or IBM announcing an acquisition or share buy back with their lack luster earnings? With their high P/E they must have know their stock would get hammered. Both companies are really cash rich since they don't pay much taxes and their money is protected in offshore accounts. I think we'll hear something in the coming weeks. Go capitalism!

Very interesting how a stock that has a P/E of 30 that misses Wall Street will behave over the next few days. Did IMB do any better?

So let me see if I understand this.

They made more money than last quarter but still missed their ''target'' and that's disappointing.

Earnings per share amounted to $6.27 compared with analyst projections of $6.40. Analysts also expected a higher revenue figure of $15.5 billion.

Google remains the world's most important search engine, which generates large amounts of advertising revenues. But it is increasingly focusing on the Android mobile system and new technologies, highlighted by its recent acquisitions of the home automation firm Nest Labs and drone maker Titan Aerospace.

The earnings report showed a 26 percent rise in "paid clicks," a key figure for Google's advertising and revenues'--growth slightly lower than the 29 percent expected by analysts.

The price per click fell one percent in the quarter and nine percent over the past year. Analysts say this reflects a growing move to smartphones, where clicks produce lower revenues than on traditional PCs.

"It's costing Google more to acquire content and maintain its data centers," said Paul Ausick at 24/7 Wall Street.

"This state of affairs is going to weigh down the stock price."

Google's chief financial officer Patrick Pichette said the results were impacted to some degree by some major acquisitions and the spin-off of its Motorola smartphone unit, which is being sold to China's Lenovo.

But he added that the expenses in the quarter "were completely in line with our objectives."

Pichette noted that Google broke off the results from Motorola as it prepares to sell the division, but that the 3,700 employees remained in the Google headcount of nearly 50,000 employees.

Google ended the quarter with $59.4 billion in cash, up from $58.7 billion at the close of the prior quarter.

Google has plans that include smart home thermostats, Internet connected eyewear, and making Android smartphones and tablets with partners.

"Our business is growing well," said Google senior vice president and chief business officer Nikesh Arora during the company's earnings call.

Arora said Google is trying to position itself for a "multiscreen" environment where people use various devices to access the Internet.

"People are always online and they want a seamless experience as they move from screen to screen," he said.

Earlier this year, Google announced a deal for smart thermostat start-up Nest in an accord valued at $3.2 billion. It also bought drone maker Titan for an undisclosed price, and gaming startup Green Throttle.

It agreed to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, after a lackluster two-year effort to turn around the smartphone maker it bought for $12.5 billion.

The market for mobile device advertising doubled in 2013 to $17.9 billion and is on pace for strong gains this year, led by Facebook and Google, a market tracker said Wednesday.

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Earnings per share amounted to $6.27 compared with analyst projections of $6.40. Analysts also expected a higher revenue figure of $15.5 billion.

Google remains the world's most important search engine, which generates large amounts of advertising revenues. But it is increasingly focusing on the Android mobile system and new technologies, highlighted by its recent acquisitions of the home automation firm Nest Labs and drone maker Titan Aerospace.

The earnings report showed a 26 percent rise in "paid clicks," a key figure for Google's advertising and revenues'--growth slightly lower than the 29 percent expected by analysts.

The price per click fell one percent in the quarter and nine percent over the past year. Analysts say this reflects a growing move to smartphones, where clicks produce lower revenues than on traditional PCs.

"It's costing Google more to acquire content and maintain its data centers," said Paul Ausick at 24/7 Wall Street.

"This state of affairs is going to weigh down the stock price."

Google's chief financial officer Patrick Pichette said the results were impacted to some degree by some major acquisitions and the spin-off of its Motorola smartphone unit, which is being sold to China's Lenovo.

But he added that the expenses in the quarter "were completely in line with our objectives."

Pichette noted that Google broke off the results from Motorola as it prepares to sell the division, but that the 3,700 employees remained in the Google headcount of nearly 50,000 employees.

Google ended the quarter with $59.4 billion in cash, up from $58.7 billion at the close of the prior quarter.

Google has plans that include smart home thermostats, Internet connected eyewear, and making Android smartphones and tablets with partners.

"Our business is growing well," said Google senior vice president and chief business officer Nikesh Arora during the company's earnings call.

Arora said Google is trying to position itself for a "multiscreen" environment where people use various devices to access the Internet.

"People are always online and they want a seamless experience as they move from screen to screen," he said.

Earlier this year, Google announced a deal for smart thermostat start-up Nest in an accord valued at $3.2 billion. It also bought drone maker Titan for an undisclosed price, and gaming startup Green Throttle.

It agreed to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, after a lackluster two-year effort to turn around the smartphone maker it bought for $12.5 billion.

The market for mobile device advertising doubled in 2013 to $17.9 billion and is on pace for strong gains this year, led by Facebook and Google, a market tracker said Wednesday.

EMarketer sees 2014 mobile ad spending at $31.5B Mar 19, 2014

Worldwide spending on mobile advertising is expected to reach $31.5 billion this year, a 75 percent increase from 2013 thanks largely to Facebook and Google, according to a new report by research firm eMarketer.

Google shares soar past $1,000 on strong earnings Oct 18, 2013

Shares of Internet search and advertising titan Google soared more than 13 percent to pass the $1,000 mark for the first time Friday after a strong earnings report.

IBM's first-quarter earnings fell and revenue came in below Wall Street's expectations amid an ongoing decline in its hardware business, one that was exasperated by weaker demand in China and emerging markets.

Alibaba steals Yahoo's thunder ahead of IPO 8 hours ago

If Yahoo appears back in favor, it can thank Alibaba, the Chinese Web giant in which it holds a big stake and which is set for a public stock offering.

New US-Spanish firm says targets rich mobile ad market 9 hours ago

Spanish telecoms firm Telefonica and US investment giant Blackstone launched a mobile telephone advertising venture on Wednesday, challenging internet giants such as Google and Facebook in a multi-billion-dollar ...

Technip, Heerema win third giant Angolan oil contract 12 hours ago

The ultra-deep Angolan offshore oil project called Kaombo generated the third huge contract in three days on Wednesday when French group Total picked two firms to carry out underwater engineering worth $3.5 billion.

A Japanese court Wednesday placed failed Bitcoin exchange MtGox in administration, with an order for bankruptcy expected to be issued soon, its administrator and chief executive said.

User comments : 0More news stories

Simplicity is key to co-operative robotsA way of making hundreds'--or even thousands'--of tiny robots cluster to carry out tasks without using any memory or processing power has been developed by engineers at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Microsoft CEO is driving data-culture mindset(Phys.org) '--Microsoft's future strategy: is all about leveraging data, from different sources, coming together using one cohesive Microsoft architecture. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday, both in ...

Computer software accurately predicts student test performanceEmotient, the leading provider of facial expression recognition data and analysis, and the University of California, San Diego announced publication of a joint study by two Emotient co-founders affiliated ...

IBM posts lower 1Q earnings amid hardware slumpIBM's first-quarter earnings fell and revenue came in below Wall Street's expectations amid an ongoing decline in its hardware business, one that was exasperated by weaker demand in China and emerging markets.

Canada police nab young man in Heartbleed data theftFederal police said Wednesday they have arrested and charged a 19-year-old man in the theft of 900 Canadian taxpayers' data, which was made vulnerable by the "Heartbleed" bug.

Creative activities outside work can improve job performanceEmployees who pursue creative activities outside of work may find that these activities boost their performance on the job, according to a new study by San Francisco State University organizational psychologist Kevin Eschleman ...

Scientists capture ultrafast snapshots of light-driven superconductivityA new study pins down a major factor behind the appearance of superconductivity'--the ability to conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency'--in a promising copper-oxide material.

Micro-macro entangled 'cat states' could one day test quantum gravity(Phys.org) '--In Schr¶dinger's famous thought experiment, a cat's quantum state becomes entangled with the quantum state of a decaying nucleus, resulting in the odd situation that the cat is both alive and ...

Chemical vapor deposition used to grow atomic layer materials on top of each otherResearchers at Penn State's Center for Two-Dimensional and Layered Materials and the University of Texas at Dallas have shown the ability to grow high quality, single-layer materials one on top of the other ...

Down's chromosome cause genome-wide disruptionThe extra copy of Chromosome 21 that causes Down's syndrome throws a spanner into the workings of all the other chromosomes as well, said a study published Wednesday that surprised its authors.

Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions.(C) Phys.org' 2003-2013, Science X network

Melissa MeltonActivist PostAccording to a program launched yesterday by CTIA - The Wireless Association®, an international nonprofit that has represented the wireless communication industry since 1984, all phones manufactured in the U.S. after July 2015 will be required to contain a ''kill switch'' system that can remotely disable and wipe any cell phone's data.

Although the ''Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment'' is a voluntary program, apparently all the major players have already happily jumped on board: ''Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft, along with the five biggest cellular carriers in the United States, are among those that have signed on to a voluntary program announced Tuesday by the industry's largest trade group,'' reported CNN.

And the supposed reasoning '-- anti-theft '-- sounds super phony, but just like everything else, it's all for your safety of course:

Advocates say the feature would deter thieves from taking mobile devices by rendering phones useless while allowing people to protect personal information if their phone is lost or stolen. Its proponents include law enforcement officials concerned about the rising problem of smartphone theft. (source)

Yeah, because law enforcement really cares quite a bit about whether or not your smartphone is stolen'...unless it's law enforcement stealing your phone from you in the first place because you've used the camera on it to protect yourself from police state activity by taking incriminating photos and videos of said law enforcement.Well, now they won't even have to physically take your phone from you, because apparently they'll be able to just push a button and remotely wipe it clean of all data.

On an aside, someone tried to break into my house and it took a whole day for the cops to even bother to show up'...like they really give a crap about whether or not your phone is stolen.

As with every other trendy new technology advertised as making consumer's lives just Jetsons-level awesome, there's an obvious flipside that can be used (abused) for quite the opposite.

By the way, the 2014 CTIA Board of Directors and Officers include the higher ups (Presidents, CEOs and VPs, etc.) from most of the major communications companies including Ericsson, Verizon Wireless, Blackberry, AT&T, Sprint, Qualcomm, LG Electronics, Samsung, T-Mobile, Motorola, U.S. Cellular, Nokia and Apple.

And remember, many of these companies are the same ones the NSA taps to track all your online communications and populate their databases with your data.

In this day and age of dwindling privacy ala 1984, you would think there would be a major market for a privacy-respecting telecom, but it takes a lot of money to set up the infrastructure for that kind of thing, and it's no secret that the U.S. intelligence community via sources like In-Q-Tel (the CIA.'s official venture capital firm) are the ones incubating all the new technology these days:

Founded in 1999 as a way for the U.S. to keep up with the rapid innovation in science and technology, In-Q-Tel has been an early backer of start-ups later acquired by Google, Oracle, IBM and Lockheed Martin.

''If you want to keep up with Silicon Valley, you need to become part of Silicon Valley. The best way to do that is have a budget because when you have a checkbook, everyone comes to you,'' said Jim Rickards, an adviser to the U.S. intelligence community who is familiar with the activities of Arlington, Va.-based IQT.

Given the increasing importance of cyber security and big data, it is a safe bet that the U.S. intelligence community will continue to lean on private-sector development in its behind-the-scenes fight against terrorism and other geopolitical threats. (source)

It was the U.S. military that invented the Internet in the first place, after all.Melissa Melton is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared, and a co-creator of Truthstream Media. Wake the flock up!

ZenPen ~ Minimal Distraction, Maximim ZenZenpen is a minimalist writing zone by Tim Holman (@twholman), to get you into that zone, where you can focus on the writing - with none of the distractions. ZenPen is open source on Github (with many improvements on the way!). If you have any questions, hit me up via email - ooh, you can follow me on twitter for updates too: @twholman

MarkdownHTMLPlain Text

îOr select format and press ctrl+c (cmd+c on mac) to copy the text.

î bi''

This is ZenPen

A minimalist writing zone, where you can block out all distractions and get to what's important. The writing!

To get started, all you need to do is delete this text (seriously, just highlight it and hit delete), and fill the page with your own fantastic words.

You can use bold, italics, both and urls just by highlighting the text and selecting them from the tiny options box that appears above it.

Quotes are easy to add too!

For questions and open source info, Click that little question mark at the bottom left of the screen.

Happy Typing! ~ Tim Holman (@twholman)

ZenPen ~ Minimal Distraction, Maximim ZenZenpen is a minimalist writing zone by Tim Holman (@twholman), to get you into that zone, where you can focus on the writing - with none of the distractions. ZenPen is open source on Github (with many improvements on the way!). If you have any questions, hit me up via email - ooh, you can follow me on twitter for updates too: @twholman

MarkdownHTMLPlain Text

îOr select format and press ctrl+c (cmd+c on mac) to copy the text.

î bi''

This is ZenPen

A minimalist writing zone, where you can block out all distractions and get to what's important. The writing!

To get started, all you need to do is delete this text (seriously, just highlight it and hit delete), and fill the page with your own fantastic words.

You can use bold, italics, both and urls just by highlighting the text and selecting them from the tiny options box that appears above it.

Quotes are easy to add too!

For questions and open source info, Click that little question mark at the bottom left of the screen.

Computer hard drive maker LaCie has acknowledged that a hacker break-in at its online store exposed credit card numbers and contact information on customers for the better part of the past year. The disclosure comes almost a month after the breach was first disclosed by KrebsOnSecurity.

On Mar. 17, 2014, this blog published evidence showing that the Web storefront for French hardware giant LaCie (now owned by Seagate) had been compromised by a group of hackers that broke into dozens of online stores using security vulnerabilities in Adobe's ColdFusion software. In response, Seagate said it had engaged third-party security firms and that its investigation was ongoing, but that it had found no indication that any customer data was compromised.

The Lacie.com Web site as listed in the control panel of a botnet of hacked ecommerce sites.

In a statement sent to this reporter on Monday, however, Seagate allowed that its investigation had indeed uncovered a serious breach. Seagate spokesman Clive J. Over said the breach may have exposed credit card transactions and customer information for nearly a year beginning March 27, 2013. From his email:

''To follow up on my last e-mail to you, I can confirm that we did find indications that an unauthorized person used the malware you referenced to gain access to information from customer transactions made through LaCie's website.''

''The information that may have been accessed by the unauthorized person includes name, address, email address, payment card number and card expiration date for transactions made between March 27, 2013 and March 10, 2014. We engaged a leading forensic investigation firm, who conducted a thorough investigation into this matter. As a precaution, we have temporarily disabled the e-commerce portion of the LaCie website while we transition to a provider that specializes in secure payment processing services. We will resume accepting online orders once we have completed the transition.''

Security and data privacy are extremely important to LaCie, and we deeply regret that this happened. We are in the process of implementing additional security measures which will help to further secure our website. Additionally, we sent notifications to the individuals who may have been affected in order to inform them of what has transpired and that we are working closely and cooperatively with the credit card companies and federal authorities in their ongoing investigation.

It is unclear how many customer records and credit cards may have been accessed during the time that the site was compromised; Over said in his email that the company did not have any additional information to share at this time.

As I noted in a related story last month, Adobe ColdFusion vulnerabilities have given rise to a number of high profile attacks in the past. The same attackers who hit LaCie also were responsible for a breach at jam and jelly maker Smuckers, as well as Alpharetta, Ga. based credit card processor SecurePay.

In February, a hacker in the U.K. was charged with accessing computers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in October 2012 and stealing names, phone numbers and email addresses using ColdFusion flaws. According to this Business Week story, Lauri Love was arrested in connection with a sealed case which claims that between October 2012 and August 2013, Love hacked into computers belonging to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy.

According to multiple sources with knowledge of the attackers and their infrastructure, this is the very same gang responsible for an impressive spree of high-profile break-ins last year, including:

-An intrusion at Adobe in which the attackers stole credit card data, tens of millions of customer records, and source code for most of Adobe's top selling software (ColdFusion,Adobe Reader/Acrobat/Photoshop);

-A hack against the National White Collar Crime Center, a congressionally-funded non-profit organization that provides training, investigative support and research to agencies and entities involved in the prevention, investigation and prosecution of cybercrime.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2014 at 10:39 am and is filed under Other. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.

3 spectators from bombing on April 151 police officer from shooting on April 181 suspect from shootout on April 19Non-fatal injuries

280 total:

264 people (estimate) at scene of bombing on April 15[3]16 police officers during gunfight on April 19[4]Suspected perpetrators

MotiveExtremist Islamic beliefs, including reactions to U.S. foreign policy towards Muslim countries[6][7]On April 15, 2013, two pressure cooker bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon at 2:49 pm EDT, killing 3 people and injuring an estimated 264 others.[3] The bombs exploded about 12 seconds and 210 yards (190 m) apart, near the finish line on Boylston Street.[2][8]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took over the investigation, and on April 18, released photographs and surveillance video of two suspects.[9][10][11] The suspects were identified later that day as Chechen brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Shortly after the FBI released the images, the suspects allegedly killed an MIT police officer, carjacked an SUV, and initiated an exchange of gunfire with the police in Watertown, Massachusetts. During the firefight, an MBTA police officer was injured but survived with severe blood loss. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot several times in the firefight and subsequently run over by the car then driven by his brother. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

An unprecedented manhunt ensued on April 19, with thousands of law enforcement officers searching a 20-block area of Watertown.[12] During the manhunt, authorities asked residents of Watertown and surrounding areas, including Boston, to stay indoors. The public transportation system and most businesses and public institutions were shut down, creating a deserted urban environment of historic size and duration.[13][14] Around 7 pm, shortly after the "shelter-in-place" advisory was rescinded, a Watertown resident discovered Dzhokhar hiding in a boat in his back yard. Dzhokhar was arrested and taken to a hospital shortly thereafter.[15]

During an initial interrogation in the hospital, Dzhokhar alleged that Tamerlan was the mastermind. He said they were motivated by extremist Islamist beliefs and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that they were self-radicalized and unconnected to any outside terrorist groups. According to him, they learned to build explosive devices from an online magazine of the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.[16] He said that he and his brother had decided after the Boston bombings to travel to New York City to bomb Times Square. Dzhokhar was charged on April 22, while still in the hospital, with use of a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death.[5][17] He has pleaded not guilty to 30 charges.

Bombings[edit]On Patriots' Day, April 15, 2013, the annual Boston Marathon began without any indications of an imminent attack.[18] Officials swept the area for bombs twice before the explosions; the second sweep occurred one hour before the bombs went off. People were able to come and go freely, and carry bags and items in and out of the area.[19]

At 2:49 pm EDT(18:49 UTC), about two hours after the winner crossed the finish line,[20] but with more than 5,700 runners yet to finish,[21] two bombs detonated on Boylston Street near Copley Square about 210 yards (190 m) apart,[22][23][24] just before the finish line.[18] The first exploded outside Marathon Sports at 671''673 Boylston Street at 2:49:43 pm EDT.[22] At the time of the first explosion, the race clock at the finish line showed 04:09:43,[25] reflecting the elapsed time since the Wave 3 start at 10:40 am EDT. The second bomb exploded at 2:49:57 pm EDT,[20][23] about 13 seconds later and one block farther west at 755 Boylston Street.[8]

The blasts blew out windows on adjacent buildings but did not cause any structural damage.[20][26] Some runners continued to cross the line until 2:57 pm EDT, 8 minutes after the explosions.[27]

Casualties and initial response[edit]Rescue workers and medical personnel, on hand to assist runners and bystanders, rushed available aid to wounded victims in the bombings' immediate aftermath.[28][29] The explosions killed 3 spectators and injured 264 others, who were treated in 27 local hospitals. At least 14 people required amputations, with some suffering traumatic amputations as a direct result of the blasts.[3]

The marathon was halted abruptly. Police, following emergency plans, diverted the remaining runners away from the finish line to Boston Common and Kenmore Square. The nearby Lenox Hotel and other buildings were evacuated.[18] Police closed down a 15-block area around the blast site; this was reduced to a 12-block crime scene on April 16.[26][30]Massachusetts Army National Guard soldiers already at the scene joined local authorities in rendering aid.[18] Boston police commissioner Ed Davis recommended that people stay off the streets.[26]

Many people dropped backpacks and other bags as they fled, requiring each to be treated as a potential bomb.[22][31] A number of news reports stated that more bombs had been found nearby and the Boston Police Bomb Squad said they would perform a controlled explosion on the 600 block of Boylston Street, but in the end no other bombs were found.[9][18][32][33][34][35][36] Some media outlets also reported a potential bombing at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library in the Dorchester section of the city, but this turned out to be an unrelated electrical fire. The Navy sent one of its bomb-disposal units to Boston to help local authorities.[37]

As a precaution, the Federal Aviation Administration restricted airspace over Boston, and issued a temporary ground stop for Boston's Logan International Airport.[38] Some Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority service was halted.[20] Several cities in Massachusetts and other states put their police forces on alert.[39]U.S. Attorney GeneralEric Holder directed that the "full resources" of the U.S. Department of Justice be brought to bear on investigating the explosions.[18]

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency suggested people trying to contact those in the vicinity use text messaging, instead of voice calls, because of crowded cellphone lines.[20] Cellphone service in Boston was congested but remained in operation, despite some local media reports stating that cell service was shut down to prevent cell phones from being used as detonators.[40]

The American Red Cross helped concerned friends and family receive information about runners and casualties.[41][42] The Boston Police Department also set up a helpline for people concerned about relatives or acquaintances to contact and a line for people to provide information.[43]Google Person Finder activated their disaster service under Boston Marathon Explosions to log known information about missing persons as a publicly viewable file.[44]

Because of the closure of several hotels near the blast zone, some out-of-town visitors were left with nowhere to stay; many Boston-area residents opened their homes to them.[45]

Investigation[edit]The Federal Bureau of Investigation led the investigation, assisted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the Drug Enforcement Administration,[46] and naming two official suspects.[47]

United States government officials stated that there had been no intelligence reports that indicated such a bombing would take place. Representative Peter King, member of the House Intelligence Committee said: "I received two top secret briefings last week on the current threat levels in the United States, and there was no evidence of this at all."[48]

Following the identification of the suspects, their father claimed that the FBI had been watching his family and questioned his sons in Cambridge, Massachusetts, five times in relation to possible explosions on the streets of Boston.[49]

At the site of the explosion, investigators found shrapnel that included bits of metal, nails, and bearing balls,[50] as well as black nylon pieces from a backpack.[51] The lid of a pressure cooker was found on a nearby rooftop.[52] Investigators also found the remains of an electronic circuit board and wiring.[50][53] All evidence was sent to the FBI Laboratory for analysis.[54] Both of the improvised explosive devices were pressure cooker bombs, manufactured by the bombers.[54][55][56][57] Authorities reportedly confirmed that the brothers used bomb making instructions found in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's Inspire.[58][59] After the suspects were identified, The Boston Globe reported that Tamerlan purchased fireworks from a fireworks store in New Hampshire.[60]

On April 19, the FBI, West New York Police Department, and Hudson County Sheriff's Department seized computer equipment from the suspects' sister's apartment located in West New York, New Jersey.[61]

On April 24, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security released a joint intelligence bulletin which the Los Angeles Times reports to include the "preliminary analysis of recovered evidence, [for] each device". The report says investigators believe that the two homemade bombs used were triggered by long-range remote controls used for toy cars; and that investigators have finished a preliminary reconstruction of the bombs that were used during the April 15 attacks.[62]

Events of April 18''19[edit]Identification of suspects: Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev[edit]In a news conference held at 5:20 pm on April 18, the FBI released photographs and surveillance videos showing two suspects'--each carrying backpacks and walking nonchalantly but purposefully in single file formation'--and sought the public's help in identifying them.[64][65] The FBI released the photos, in part, to limit the damage by those wrongly targeted by incorrect news reports and social media speculations.[66] Authorities later said that releasing the suspect's photos "was a turning point in the investigation, no doubt about it."[63]

Jeff Bauman, a victim who lost both legs,[67] was adjacent to the location of one of the bombs; upon recovering consciousness, he asked for pen and paper and wrote a note to the FBI, "bag, saw the guy, looked right at me".[67] Bauman was later able to provide detailed descriptions to the authorities of a suspect who was seen placing a backpack beside him at the bombing scene two and a half minutes before it exploded, enabling the photo to be identified and circulated quickly.[67][68][69]

The suspects, initially identified by the FBI as unnamed suspects 1 and 2 (or "black hat" and "white hat", respectively) from photographic and video evidence, had "acted differently" after the explosions; they had stayed to watch the aftermath and walked away "casually", rather than fleeing.[65] Asked for assistance in identifying the suspects, the public provided a deluge of photographs and home movie records to police, which were scrutinized by both authorities and online public social networks.[65]

Despite video footage taken at the scene,[70] the suspects were not identified by authorities before killing a police officer and hijacking a civilian. The source of identification was RMV records on the Honda vehicle, which was used in a subsequent kidnapping and then abandoned.[71] The suspects were then identified as two brothers whose family had immigrated to the United States as refugees around 2002: 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Russian: ÐÐ°Ð¼ÐµÑÐ>>Ð°Ð½ Ð...Ð°ÑÐ½Ð°ÐµÐ²//), born on October 21, 1986, and killed on April 19, 2013, and 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Russian: Ð--Ð¶Ð¾Ñ Ð°Ñ Ð...Ð°ÑÐ½Ð°ÐµÐ²//), born on July 22, 1993.[72][73][a]

MIT shooting and carjacking[edit]A few hours after the photos were released, the suspects allegedly shot Sean A. Collier of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Department multiple times, killing him[74] for his gun, which they could not get out because of the holster's retention system.[75] Collier, aged 27, was seated in his police car near the Stata Center (Building 32), on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus.[15][76] He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in nearby downtown Boston, where he was pronounced dead.[15][77] Some law enforcement officials described the killing as an assassination.[76]

The duo then allegedly carjacked a Mercedes-Benz M-ClassSUV in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood of Boston; Tamerlan took the owner hostage and told him that he was responsible for the Boston bombings and for killing a police officer.[15] Dzhokhar followed them in the green Honda, later joining them in the Mercedes-Benz. Later interrogation allegedly revealed that the brothers "decided spontaneously" that they wanted to go to New York and bomb Times Square.[78]

The suspects forced the hostage to use his ATM cards to obtain $800 in cash until the daily cash withdrawal limit was reached.[79][80] They transferred objects to the Mercedes-Benz and one brother followed it in their Honda Civic,[81] for which an all-points bulletin was issued. The car's owner, Danny, a Chinese national, escaped while the suspects stopped at a gas station; he ran across the street to another gas station, asking the clerk to call 911.[82][83] His cellphone remained in the vehicle, allowing the police to track the suspects to Watertown.[84]

Firefight with police[edit]Shortly after midnight on April 19, a Watertown police officer identified the brothers in a Honda Civic and the stolen SUV, and a "ferocious" gunfight followed on the 100 block of Laurel St, between the brothers and police arriving at the scene.[4][15][85] An estimated 200''300 rounds of ammunition were fired and at least one further bomb and several "crude grenades" were thrown.[85][86]

According to Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau, the brothers had an "arsenal of guns."[87] Also according to Deveau, the older brother, Tamerlan, ran out of ammunition and was tackled and apprehended by police, while the younger brother Dzhokhar drove the stolen SUV toward police and over Tamerlan, dragging him a short distance down the street.[15][88][89][90] Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sped off, but about a half-mile away at the corner of Spruce and Lincoln streets he abandoned the car and escaped on foot.[15][84][91][92]

According to two anonymous officials, only one Ruger9mmpistol was recovered from the scene and one of them said it had a defaced serial number.[93][94] The Boston Globe reported that within a 10-minute span, "police officers fired what may be an unprecedented number of rounds in a single police incident in recent state history ... [spraying] the neighborhood ... [leaving] at least a dozen nearby houses pockmarked with dozens of bullet holes".[95] Tamerlan Tsarnaev was captured and transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on April 19 at 1:35 a.m. The emergency room doctors said that he did not appear to have been run over.[96]

According to the death certificate, Tsarnaev's cause of death was "gunshot wounds of torso and extremities, blunt trauma to head and torso," and "shot by police then run over and dragged by motor vehicle." The death was ruled a homicide.[97]

During the firefight, 33-year-old MBTA Police Officer Richard H. Donahue Jr.[98] was also critically wounded by what may have been friendly fire.[99] He was taken to Mount Auburn Hospital, where he was in critical but stable condition.[100] Fifteen other police officers sustained minor injuries during the firefight.[4]

Manhunt and capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev[edit]The FBI released additional photos of the two during the Watertown incident.[101] Early on April 19, Watertown residents received reverse 911 calls asking them to stay indoors.[102] On the morning of April 19, Governor Patrick asked residents of Watertown and adjacent cities and towns (Allston-Brighton, Boston, Belmont, Brookline, Cambridge, Newton, and Waltham)[103][104] to "shelter in place".[105]Somerville residents also received a reverse-911 call with orders to shelter in place.[106]

A 20-block area of Watertown was cordoned off and residents were told not to leave their homes or answer the door as officers in tactical gear scoured the area. Helicopters circled the area and SWAT teams in armored vehicles moved through in formation, with officers going door-to-door.[107] On the scene were the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Guard, the Boston and Watertown Police departments and the Massachusetts State Police. The show of force was the first major field test of the interagency task forces created in the wake of the September 11 attacks.[108]

The entire public transit network, as well as most Boston taxi service,[b] was suspended, as was Amtrak service to and from Boston.[76][110]Logan International Airport remained open under heightened security.[110] Universities, schools, many businesses, and other facilities were closed as thousands of law enforcement personnel participated in an unprecedented door-to-door manhunt in Watertown, as well as following up other leads, including at the house the brothers shared in Cambridge. Seven improvised explosive devices were recovered by bomb squads.[111]

The father of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers, speaking from his home in Makhachkala, Dagestan, encouraged his son to: "Give up. Give up. You have a bright future ahead of you. Come home to Russia." He continued, "If they killed him, then all hell would break loose."[112] On television, Dzhokhar's uncle from Montgomery Village, Maryland, pleaded with him to turn himself in.[113]

The manhunt ended on the evening of April 19, two hours after the shelter-in-place order had been lifted.[114] Outside the search area, a Watertown resident stepped outside and noticed that the cover on his boat in his back yard was loose.[115] He looked into the boat and saw a body lying in a pool of blood, and he promptly notified police.[116] Authorities surrounded the boat and verified movement through a forward looking infraredthermal imaging device in a State Police helicopter.[4][117] When the suspect started poking at the tarp of the boat, police began a large volume of gunfire at the boat, stopping only after the Superintendent on the scene called for a cease fire. Celebrations followed law enforcement's capture of Tsarnaev.[118][119]

According to Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, and Watertown Police Chief Deveau, Tsarnaev was shooting from inside the boat at police, "exchanging fire for an hour."[87] After he was captured, Tsarnaev was found not to have any weapons.[120] He was taken into custody at 8:42 pm[121][122] and transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition[123] with multiple gunshot wounds to the head, neck, legs and hand.[124] Initial reports that the neck wound was from a self-inflicted gunshot from a possible suicide attempt were later contradicted by the revelation that he was unarmed at the time of capture and a description of the neck wound by SWAT team members that the neck wound was a slicing injury, possibly caused by shrapnel from an explosion.[125]

Legal proceedings[edit]Interrogation[edit]United States Senators Kelly Ayotte, Saxby Chambliss, Lindsey Graham, and John McCain, and Representative Peter T. King, suggested that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a U.S. citizen, should be tried as an unlawful enemy combatant rather than as a criminal, potentially preventing him from obtaining legal counsel.[126][127] Other sources, including Alan Dershowitz, a prominent American legal scholar and lawyer, said that doing so would be illegal and would jeopardize the prosecution.[128][129] The government decided to try Dzhokhar in the federal criminal court system and not as an enemy combatant.[130]

Dzhokhar was questioned for 16 hours by investigators but stopped communicating with them on the night of April 22 after Judge Marianne Bowler read him a Miranda warning.[78][131] Dzhokhar had not previously been given a Miranda warning, as federal law enforcement officials invoked the warning's public safety exception.[132] This raised doubts whether the suspect's statements during this investigation would be admissible as evidence and led to a debate surrounding Miranda rights.[133][134][135]

Charges and detention[edit]On April 22, formal criminal charges were brought against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts during a bedside hearing while he was hospitalized. He was charged with use of a weapon of mass destruction, and with malicious destruction of property resulting in death.[5] The charges carry potential sentences of life imprisonment or the death penalty.[136] Tsarnaev was judged to be awake, mentally competent, and lucid, and he responded to most questions by nodding. When the judge asked him whether he was able to afford an attorney, he responded "no"; he is represented by the Federal Public Defender's office.[137] On April 26, Dzhohkar Tsarnaev was moved from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to the Federal Medical Center at Fort Devens, about 40 miles (64 km) from Boston. FMC Devens is a federal prison medical facility at a former Army base[138] where he is being held in solitary confinement at a segregated housing unit[139] with 23-hour-per-day lockdown.[140][141]

On July 10, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to 30 charges in his first public court appearance, including a murder charge for MIT police officer Sean Collier.[142] He was back in court for a status hearing on September 23,[143] and his lawyers requested more time to prepare their defense.[144] On October 2, Tsarnaev's attorneys asked the court to lift the special administrative measures (SAMs) imposed by Attorney General Holder in August, saying the measures have left Tsarnaev unduly isolated from communication with his family and lawyers, and that no evidence suggests he poses a future threat.[145]

A trial in federal court is scheduled for November 3, 2014.[146]

Motives and backgrounds[edit]According to FBI interrogators, Dzhokhar and his brother were motivated by extremist Islamic beliefs, and "were not connected to any known terrorist groups"; instead learning to build explosive weapons from an online magazine published by al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen.[16] It is further alleged that "[Dzhokhar and] his brother considered suicide attacks and striking on the Fourth of July;[147] but ultimately decided to use pressure cooker bombs (capable of remote detonation) and other IEDs." Fox News reported that the brothers "chose the prestigious race as a 'target of opportunity' ... [after] the building of the bombs came together more quickly than expected".[148][149]

Dzhokhar said he and his brother wanted to defend Islam from the U.S., which conducted the Iraq War and War in Afghanistan, in the view of the brothers, against Muslims.[6][130][150] Later a CBS report revealed that a note scrawled by Dzhokhar with a marker on the interior wall of the boat where he was hiding said the bombings were "retribution for U.S. military action in Afghanistan and Iraq", and called the Boston victims 'collateral damage', "in the same way innocent victims have been collateral damage in U.S. wars around the world."[151] According to The New York Times the portion of the boat's interior with the note would likely be cut from the hull with permission from the owner and presented in court as evidence.[152]

Despite the seemingly outwardly religious motivation of the Tsarnaev brothers, some political science and public policy scholars suggest that Islam may have played only a secondary role in the attacks.[153] Sympathy towards the political aspirations in the Caucasus region and Tamerlan's inability to become fully integrated into American society appear to be the primary motives in their opinion.[153] According to The Los Angeles Times, a law enforcement official said Dzhokhar "did not seem as bothered about America's role in the Muslim world" as his brother Tamerlan had been.[59] Dzhokhar identified Tamerlan as the "driving force" behind the bombings, and said that his brother had only recently recruited him to help.[130][154]

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was born in 1986 in the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, North Caucasus.[155] Dzhokhar was born in 1993 in Kyrgyzstan, although some reports say his family claims he was born in Dagestan.[156] The family spent time in Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan, and in Makhachkala, Dagestan.[80][157] They are half Chechen through their father, Anzor, and half Avar[158] through their mother, Zubeidat. Although they never lived in Chechnya the brothers self-identified as Chechen.[156][159][160][161]

The Tsarnaev family emigrated in 2002 to the United States,[15][159][162][163] where they applied for refugee status, settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[73] Tamerlan Tsarnaev attended Bunker Hill Community College but dropped out to become a boxer. His goal was a place on the U.S. Olympic boxing team saying that "unless his native Chechnya becomes independent" he would "rather compete for the United States than for Russia".[165] He was married on July 15, 2010 in the Masjid Al Quran Mosque[166] in Dorchester, to a U.S. citizen, Katherine Russell, who was pregnant with their daughter.[167] He stated that he "didn't understand" Americans and had not a single American friend. He had a history of violence, including an arrest in July 2009 for assaulting his then girlfriend.[168]

The brothers are Muslim, with Tamerlan's aunt stating that he had recently become a devout Muslim.[160][161] Tamerlan, in the three years before his death, became more devout and religious,[169][170] and a YouTube channel in his name linked to Salafist[169] and Islamist[167][171][172] videos. The FBI was informed by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2011 that he was a "follower of radical Islam."[171] In response, the FBI interviewed Tamerlan and his family, and searched databases, but did not find any evidence of "terrorism activity, domestic or foreign."[173][174][175][176][177][178] During the 2012 trip to Dagestan, Tamerlan was reportedly a frequent visitor at a mosque on Kotrova Street in Makhachkala,[179][180][181] believed by the FSB to be linked with radical Islam.[180] Some experts believe "they were motivated by their faith, apparently an anti-American, radical version of Islam" acquired in the U.S.,[182] while others believe the turn to radicalism happened in Dagestan.[183]

At the time of the bombing, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, with a major in marine biology.[184] Dzhokhar became a naturalized U.S. citizen on September 11, 2012.[185] Tamerlan's boxing coach reported to NBC that the young brother was greatly affected by his brother and admired him.[186][187]

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was previously connected, but at the time not a suspect, to the triple homicide in Waltham, Massachusetts on the evening of September 11, 2011.[188][189] Brendan Mess, Erik Weissman, and Raphael Teken were murdered in Mess' apartment. All had their throats slit from ear to ear, with such great force that they were nearly decapitated. The local district attorney said that it appeared that the killer and the victims knew each other, and that the murders were not random.[190] Tamerlan Tsarnaev had previously described murder victim Brendan Mess as his "best friend."[191] After the bombings and subsequent revelations of Tsarnaev's personal life, the Waltham murders case was reexamined in April 2013 with Tsarnaev as a new suspect.[188] Both ABC and The New York Times have reported that there is strong evidence that implicate Tsarnaev for this triple homicide.[191][192]

Some analysts claim the Tsarnaev brothers' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, is a radical extremist and supporter of jihad, who influenced her sons' behavior.[193][194][195] This prompted the Russian government to warn the U.S. government about the family's behavior, on two occasions. Both Tamerlan and his mother were placed on a terrorism watch list about 18 months before the bombing took place.[196]

According to a Wall Street Journal report citing statements by anonymous US officials, Russia withheld information from U.S. intelligence after its initial warning, after which it denied U.S. requests for more information.[197]

Other arrests and detentions[edit]On April 15, several people who were near the scene of the blast and the surrounding area were taken into custody and questioned about the bombings, including a Saudi man whom police stopped as he was walking away from the explosion, and detained when some of his responses to questions "made them uncomfortable".[198][199][200][201] Law enforcement searched his residence in a Boston suburb. CNN later reported that he was found to have no connection to the attack; an unnamed U.S. official said, "he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."[33][202][203]

On the night of April 18, two men riding in a taxi in the vicinity of the shootout were arrested and released shortly thereafter when police determined they were not involved in the Marathon attacks.[204] Another man was arrested several blocks from the site of the shootout and was forced to strip naked by police who feared he might have concealed explosives. He was released that evening after a brief investigation determined that he was an innocent bystander.[205][206]

On May 22, the FBI interrogated Ibragim Todashev, a Chechen from Boston, in Orlando, Florida. During the interrogation he was shot and killed by an FBI officer who claimed that Todashev attacked him.[207]The New York Times quoted an unnamed law enforcement official as saying that Todashev had confessed to the 2011 Waltham murders and implicated Tsarnaev as well.[208] However, the father of Ibragim Todashev claims that his son is innocent and that federal investigators are biased against Chechens and made up their case against him.[209]

Dias Kadyrbayev, Azamat Tazhayakov and Robel Phillipos[edit]During the night of April 18''19, police arrested two Kazakhstan natives living in the U.S., Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov (19 and 20 years old, respectively) and an unnamed girlfriend of one of the men, at the off-campus housing complex at which Tsarnaev had sometimes stayed in New Bedford, Massachusetts.[210][211][212] All three were soon released. The men were Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's roommates.[213]

On April 20, Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were re-arrested in New Bedford, and held on immigration-related violations. On May 1, they appeared before a federal immigration judge and were charged with overstaying their student visas.[214][215][216] That same day, Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were charged criminally with:

wilfully conspir(ing) with each other to commit an offense against the United States'... by knowingly destroying, concealing and covering up objects belonging to Dzokhar'... namely, a backpack containing fireworks and a laptop computer, with the intent to impede, obstruct, and influence the criminal investigation of the Marathon bombings.[217][218]

If convicted, Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov could be sentenced to up to five years' imprisonment and assessed $250,000 fines. Tazhayakov denied any wrongdoing at the time of arrest.

Robel Phillipos, a 19-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, born in Ethiopia and living in Cambridge, was arrested and faces charges of knowingly making false statements to police.[213] He graduated from high school in 2011 with the younger Tsarnaev brother. If convicted, Phillipos faces a maximum of eight years' imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.[219] He was released on $100,000 bail, and placed under house confinement with an ankle bracelet.[220]

Phillipos, Kadyrbayev, Tazhayakov, and Tsarnaev entered the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in the fall of 2011 and knew each other well. After seeing photos of the as-yet unidentified Tsarnaev on television, the three men are alleged to have traveled to Tsarnaev's dorm room where they retrieved a backpack and laptop belonging to Tsarnaev. The backpack was discarded, but Police recovered the backpack and contents in a nearby New Bedford landfill on April 26. During interviews, the men initially denied visiting the dorm room but later admitted their actions.[213][221]

On August 8, 2013, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice. This was after allegedly helping Dzhokhar Tsarnaev dispose of a laptop, fireworks, and a backpack after the bombings. If convicted, each would face up to 25 years in prison, and they also could be deported.[222]

Victims[edit]Deaths[edit]Three spectators were killed in the bombings: Krystle Marie Campbell, 29, a restaurant manager from Medford, Massachusetts;[223] Lu Lingzi (Chinese: åä>>¤å­),[224][225] 23, a Chinese national and Boston University graduate student from Shenyang, Liaoning;[226][227][228][229] and Martin William Richard, an eight-year-old boy from the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, who was killed by the second bomb.[230][231]

On April 18 at about 10:48 pm, Sean A. Collier, 27, an MIT police officer (formerly with the Somerville Auxiliary Police Department from 2006 to 2009[232]) of Wilmington, Massachusetts, living in Somerville, Massachusetts, was ambushed in his police car and died from multiple gunshot wounds allegedly from the bombing suspects.[74]

Injuries[edit]According to the Boston Public Health Commission, 264 people were treated at 27 local hospitals.[3][233] Eleven days later, 29 remained hospitalized, one in critical condition.[234] Many victims had lower leg injuries and shrapnel wounds, which indicated the devices were low to the ground.[235] At least sixteen people lost limbs, at the scene or by amputation in a hospital, and three lost more than one limb.[236][237][238][239]

Doctors described removing "ball-bearing type" metallic beads a little larger than BBs, and small carpenter-type nails about 1 to 2.5 centimeters (0.4 to 1 in) long.[240] Similar objects were found at the scene.[50]The New York Times cited doctors as saying because the bombs were low to the ground, they mainly injured legs and feet instead of fatally injuring abdomens, chests, and heads.[241] Some victims had perforated eardrums.[235]

During a firefight with the suspects just after midnight on April 19, 33-year-old MBTA police officer Richard H. Donohue Jr. was critically wounded.[98] He lost almost all of his blood, and his heart stopped for 45 minutes, during which time he was kept alive by cardiopulmonary resuscitation.[242]The Boston Globe reported that Donohue may have been accidentally shot by a fellow officer.[99]

Marc Fucarile, who lost his right leg and received severe burns and shrapnel wounds, was the last victim released from hospital care, on July 24, 2013.[243]

Reactions[edit]Law enforcement, local and national politicians, and various heads of state reacted quickly to the bombings, generally condemning the act and expressing sympathies for the victims.[51][244]

Aid to victims[edit]The One Fund Boston, established by Massachusetts GovernorDeval Patrick and Boston mayor Thomas Menino and administered by attorney Kenneth Feinberg, expects to make distributions to bombing victims by June 30.[245][246] "In my 20 years as mayor, I've never seen the business community come together so quickly," said Mayor Menino.[247] A week after the bombings, crowdfunding websites, such as GoFundMe, GiveForward, FundRazr, YouCaring and Fundly, received more than 23,000 pledges promising more than $2 million for the victims, their families, and others affected by the bombings.[248] On May 30, 2013 the Boston Strong concert at the TD Garden in Boston benefitted the One Fund. The concert featured Aerosmith, James Taylor, Boston, J. Geils Band, Dropkick Murphys, New Kids on the Block, Bell Biv DeVoe, Boyz II Men, Jimmy Buffett, Carole King, Extreme, and Jason Aldean.

The Israel Trauma Coalition for Response and Preparedness sent six psychologists and specialists from Israel to help Boston emergency responder, government administrators, and community stakeholders develop post-terrorist attack recovery strategies.[249]

Following a $212,000 donation from Health Bridge Management on September 12, 2013, the One Fund Boston had received more than $69.8 million in donations.[250]

Local[edit]As a safety precaution, the NHL postponed a Boston Bruins home game against the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden scheduled for April 15, to April 28 instead.[251] The Boston Symphony Orchestra canceled its April 15 performance.[252] On April 16, the MBTA public transit system, which was partly shut down, was under heavy National Guard and police presence and it was shut down a second time April 19 during the manhunt.[76][110][253] The NBA's Boston Celtics game scheduled for April 16 against the Indiana Pacers was canceled since both teams' playoffseedings were already set.[251] The Boston Red Sox game at Fenway, the Bruins game, and the Big Apple Circus performance scheduled for April 19, were postponed to support efforts of law enforcement officers.[254] The NCAA announced on April 19 that the 2013 NCAA Men's Division III Volleyball Championship, scheduled for April 26''28 at the MIT campus in Cambridge, would be moved to Nazareth College in the Rochester, New York area.[255]Boston University established a scholarship in honor of L¼ Lingzi, a student who died in the bombing.[256] On April 26, the Celtics honored the bombing victims and first responders before their playoff game against the Knicks at home in the TD Garden.[257] The Bruins' home playoff games held tributes to the Marathon bombing victims and first responders before the opening face-off.[258] After the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Bruins in the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals, the Blackhawks took out a full-page ad in the Boston Globe thanking the city of Boston for respect and sportsmanship during the Cup Finals and praising their recovery from the bombings.[259] On September 12, the New England Patriots honored 25 first responders with special jerseys in a ceremony before their opening home game against the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.[260] After the Red Sox won the 2013 World Series, the team used their celebratory parade on November 2, 2013, to honor the victims of the bombings at a dedication on the marathon finish line, a move considered to help the city "reclaim" its spirit that was lost after the bombing.[261]

A couple, Christian Williams and Caroline Reinsch, who both had sustained injuries in the bombing, and who had learned they were expecting while in hospital, had a daughter on December 18, 2013.[262]

National[edit]President Barack Obama delivering a statement on April 15, 2013, in the aftermath of the bombingsPresidentBarack Obama addressed the nation after the attack.[263] He said that, although the perpetrator(s) were still unknown, the government would "get to the bottom of this" and that those responsible "will feel the full weight of justice".[264] The President addressed the American people the next day, and later said, "Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror."[265] President Obama ordered flags to half-staff until April 20 on all federal buildings as "a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on April 15, 2013, in Boston, Massachusetts."[266] On April 18, President Obama addressed an interfaith service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston to honor the victims of the attacks.[267]

Moments of silence were held at various events across the country, including at the openings of the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and NYMEX on the day after the bombings.[268]

A Boston Remembrance Run held in Portland, Oregon, on April 17, drew over 1,000 runners in a silent show of support.[269] The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon organizers asked runners, volunteers, and spectators to wear red socks. Marathon organizer Andrea Miles said, "As Oklahomans and folks participating in the OKC Memorial Marathon, we have such a deep connection to not only the marathon but the events from the Murrah bombing that have led to this memorial," Miles said. "So now we're not just running to remember the 168 people who were lost in 1995 but also to honor Boston and stand in solidarity with them."[270]

On June 7, 2013, a cross-country relay, One Run for Boston,[271] left Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California, for Boston. Organized by three Britons '-- Danny Bent, Kate Treleaven and James Hay '-- to support the Boston One Fund, the relay included more than 2,000 runners in 319 stages of 5 to 12 miles for a total of more than 3,000 miles in 14 states. The GPS baton carried to track the relay's progress crossed the Boston Marathon Finish Line around 1 am on July 1, 2013.

International[edit]The bombings were denounced and condolences were offered by many international leaders as well as leading figures from international sport. Security measures were increased worldwide in the wake of the attack.[272][273][274][275]

In China, users posted condolence messages on Weibo in response to the death of L¼ Lingzi.[276] Chris Buckley of The New York Times said "Ms. Lu's death gave a melancholy face to the attraction that America and its colleges exert over many young Chinese."[227] Laurie Burkitt of The Wall Street Journal said "Ms. Lu's death resonates with many in China" due to the one-child policy.[277]

Organizers of the London Marathon, which was held six days after the Boston bombings, reviewed security arrangements for their event, despite there not being any threat against it. Hundreds of extra police officers were drafted in to provide a greater presence on the streets, but despite the security concerns a record 700,000 spectators lined the streets. Runners in London observed a 30-second silence in respect for the victims of Boston shortly before the race began, and many runners wore black ribbons on their vests. Organisers also pledged to donate US$3 to a fund for Boston Marathon victims for every person who finished the race.[278][279][280]

Organizers of the 2013 Vancouver Sun Run, which was held on April 21, 2013, donated $10 from every late entry for the race to help victims of the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Jamie Pitblado, vice-president of promotions for The Vancouver Sun and The Province, said the money would go to One Fund Boston, an official charity that's collecting donations for the victims and their families. Sun Run organizers raised anywhere from $25,000 to $40,000. There were over 48,000 participants, many dressed in blue and yellow (Boston colors) with others wearing Boston Red Sox caps.[281]

Petr Gandalovic, ambassador of the Czech Republic, released a statement after noticing much confusion on Facebook and Twitter (and from a former CIA agent, live on CNN) between his nation and the Chechen Republic. "The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities '' the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation."[282]

Security was also stepped up in Singapore in response to online threats made on attacking several locations in the city-state and the Singapore Marathon in December. Two suspects were investigated and one was eventually arrested for making false bomb threats.[283]

Russian reaction[edit]The Russian government said special attention will be paid to security at upcoming international sports events in Russia, including the 2014 Winter Olympics.[284] According to the Russian embassy in the U.S., President Vladimir Putin condemned the "barbaric crime" and "stressed that the Russian Federation will be ready, if necessary, to assist in the U.S. authorities' investigation."[285] He urged closer cooperation of security services with Western partners.[286]

Senator Saxby Chambliss and Republican Richard Burr report that Russian authorities had separately asked both the FBI (at least twice: during March and November 2011) and the CIA (September 2011) to look carefully into Tamerlan Tsarnaev and provide more information about him back to Russia.[287][288][289] Moreover, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) secretly recorded phone conversations between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva (where they discussed jihad) and sent it to FBI to warn their counterparts in the US about possible extremist links of Tsarnaev family. [289] However, while Russia offered US intelligence services warnings that Tsarnaev planned to link up with extremist groups abroad, an FBI investigation yielded no evidence to support those claims at the time. In addition, subsequent U.S. requests for additional information about Tsarnaev went unanswered by the Russians.[290]

Chechen reactions[edit]On April 19, 2013, the press-secretary of the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, issued a statement that, inter alia, read: "The Boston bombing suspects have nothing to do with Chechnya".[291][292] On the same day, Kadyrov was reported by The Guardian to have written on Instagram:[293]

Any attempt to make a link between Chechnya and the Tsarnaevs, if they are guilty, is in vain. They grew up in the U.S., their views and beliefs were formed there. The roots of evil must be searched for in America. The whole world must battle with terrorism. We know this better than anyone. We wish recover [sic] to all the victims and share Americans' feeling of sorrow.

Akhmed Zakayev, head of the secular wing of the Chechen separatist movement, now in exile in London, condemned the bombings as "terrorist" and expressed condolences to the families of the victims. Zakayev denied that the bombers were in any way representative of the Chechen people, saying that "the Chechen people never had and can not have any hostile feelings toward the United States and its citizens."[294]

The Mujahideen of the Caucasus Emirate Province of Dagestan, the Caucasian Islamist organization in both Chechnya and Dagestan, denied any link to the bombing or the Tsarnaev brothers and stated that it was at war with Russia, not the United States. It also said that it had sworn off violence against civilians since 2012.[295][296][297]

Criticism of lockdown[edit]The day-long lockdown was criticized as being an overreaction by some. Michael Cohen of The Observer said that Americans have little experience with daily terrorism compared to some countries and "are more primed to ... assume the absolute worst".[298] He wrote that it was not the first time dangerous murderers have been on the loose in a large American city, naming Christopher Dorner in February 2013 and the Beltway sniper attacks in October 2002, yet in none of the previous cases had a lockdown been used.[298] Moreover, critics, including Thomas R. Eddlem of The New American, Sean Collins of Spiked, and former Presidential candidate Ron Paul, said that martial law does not work, noting that the suspect was not found until the curfew was lifted.[298][299][300][301] Paul characterized the lockdown as "a violation of civil liberties."[301]

Haaretz's Chemi Salev wrote that "in terms of cost-benefit analysis, from the evil terrorist's point of view, the Boston Street bombings and their aftermath can only be viewed as a resounding triumph", since the "relatively amateurish" terrorists managed to intimidate a vast number of people and got a maximum amount of publicity.[302] In The New York Times, Ross Douthat commented about Salev's thoughts that the massive manhunt operation just might deter other amateur terrorists but not hard-core terrorists such as Mohammed Atta.[303] Douthat argued that out-of-the-ordinary measures can only be used when terrorism itself is out-of-the-ordinary: if attacks started to occur more often, people would not be as willing to comply with shelter in place commands, yet once a terrorist has been hunted with such an operation, it is hard to justify why such measures should not be taken the next time.[303]

Conflicting reports[edit]On the afternoon of the bombings, The New York Post reported that a suspect, a Saudi Arabian male, was under guard and being questioned at a Boston hospital.[304] That evening, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said that there had not been an arrest.[305] The Post did not retract its story about the suspect, leading to widespread reports by CBS News, CNN, and other media that a Middle Eastern suspect was in custody.[306] The day after the bombing, a majority of outlets were reporting that the Saudi was a witness, not a suspect.[307]

The New York Post on its April 18 front page showed two men, and said they were being sought by the authorities. The two were not the ones being sought as suspects. They were a 17-year-old boy and his track coach. The boy, from Revere, Massachusetts, turned himself over to the police immediately and was cleared after a 20-minute interview in which they advised him to deactivate his Facebook account.[308][309]New York Post editor Col Allan stated, "We stand by our story. The image was emailed to law enforcement agencies yesterday afternoon seeking information about these men, as our story reported. We did not identify them as suspects." The two were implied to be possible suspects via crowdsourcing on the websites Reddit[309] and 4chan.[310]

Several other people were mistakenly identified as suspects.[311] Among those wrongly identified as suspects on Reddit were a 17-year-old athletics star and Sunil Tripathi, a Brown University student missing since March.[312][313] Tripathi was found dead on April 23 in the Providence River.[314]

On April 17, the FBI released the following statement:

Contrary to widespread reporting, no arrest has been made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack. Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate. Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting.[315][316]

The decision to release the photos of the Tsarnaev brothers was made in part to limit damage done to those misidentified on the Internet and by the media, and to address concerns over maintaining control of the manhunt.[66]

BBC News reported that the initial announcements from the authorities had been praised for using language "with care and deliberation" to avoid victimization of religious minorities, but that "a xenophobic undercurrent in the American response to the tragedy" was shown by some comments on social networking websites.[317]

2014 anniversary incident[edit]On April 15, 2014, two unattended backpacks were found at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, one on Boylston Street. Police apprehended a man nearby, and the bomb squad was called to the scene.[318][319] The man was barefoot and wore a black veil and makeup on his face.[320] Boston police destroyed both packages, apparently containing rice cookers and confetti, and nobody was harmed.[320]

Police evacuated the Boston Marathon finish line earlier tonight after they discovered two unattended backpacks at the site of last year's bombings. Both bags were detonated by a bomb squad. One of the bags contained a rice cooker filled with confetti; the other contained photo equipment.

A man has been charged with possession of a hoax device, disorderly conduct, and disturbing the peace. He'd been wearing a black veil and yelling "Boston Strong!" on Boylston Street when he was detained. According to WBZ-TV's Peter Wilson, the suspect's name is Kayvon Edson, though a reader who knew him in high school says his name then was Kevin.

The backpacks weren't the only signs of suspicious activity. Sarah French of WHDH 7News took a video of a man wearing a backpack, walking down the street while yelling "Boston Strong!" French said the man wore "black netting" and had no shoes on. It's unknown if the backpacks and the man are related incidents. (See updates below)

A bomb squad was called in to inspect the backpacks.

The Boston police announced the closing of Boylston Street, along with the temporary suspension of Green Line service.

Update: One witness in WCVB's report says the man in the netting'--with makeup on his face'--dropped off one of the backpacks. The report also says that one person is in custody at the Boston Library.

Update #2: The Boston Police Department says that they have a male suspect in custody in connection with the backpacks.

Update #3: According to Alicia Anskis, the woman who recorded this video, the man yelling "Boston Strong!" was arrested.

Update #5: The bomb squad has detonated one backpack, according to NECN. To clarify, the controlled detonation doesn't mean the backpack necessarily had explosives in it. The contents of the backpack are still unknown.

Update #6: The second backpack has been detonated in a controlled explosion. Again, it's not clear if the backpack had anything dangerous inside of it.

A Beijing district court on Thursday gave an Internet rumormonger who defamed celebrities and the government a 3-year jail term.Qin Zhihui, known as "Qinhuohuo" in cyberspace, was sentenced by the Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court for two years on defamation charge and another year for affray.

He was found guilty of spreading rumors about several celebrities including popular television hostess Yang Lan, as well as China's former Ministry of Railways, via Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like service, from 2012 to 2013.

By leaving a comment, you agree to abide by all terms and conditions (See the Comment section).

TweetShare thisEmailPrintA man holds an iPhone as he visits Sina's Weibo microblogging site in Shanghai May 29, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria

(Reuters) - China's Weibo Corp will be valued at a lower-than-expected $3.46 billion when it goes public on the Nasdaq on Thursday, amidst concerns about the microblogging service's slowing user growth and the country's highly censored media environment.

A Chinese firm, Shanghai Zendai Property, plan on building the next New York right next to Jo'burg. They plan to build an R84 billion city over the next 15 years just 8km away from OR Tambo International Airport. They hope it will become the future capital of Africa.

Last year there were reports of explosives and chemicals firm AECI selling its 1600 hectare site close to Johannesburg to the Chinese developers. Shanghai Zendai Property's chairman announced on Wednesday that they plan to break ground next year.

They plan to invest R3 billion over the next three years on infrastructure, with the initial focus on building schools and houses. It has been reported that Shanghai Zendai Property paid AECI close to R1 billion for their Modderfontein site. It was reported that the Modderfontein wetlands will be conserved and will be a feature of the city similar to New York's Central Park.

This article was first published in War on the Rocks. It is republished here with permission.

Over the last decade, the United States has been drawn into a series of imbroglios in the Middle East and South Asia, sapping military and financial resources and frustrating policymakers who seem to have no good options for managing regional troubles. In Asia, by contrast, the picture is clearer. America has tangible economic, political and military interests there. The region is also where many believe America's global superpower status faces the most obvious challenge: China. Thus, realists such as John Mearsheimer, writing in TheNational Interest, approve of the ''pivot'' or ''rebalance.''

In Asia, America is trying to support its allies and preserve regional stability in the face of rising tensions and nationalist recrudescence, while avoiding unnecessary confrontation with China. The recent diplomatic conflicts over air defense identification zones and increasing confrontations over territorial disputes demonstrate that playing referee in Asia while protecting American interests is no easy task. While Asia deserves America's focus and resources, the real dress rehearsal for China's challenge to America's superpower status is already taking place'--in the Middle East. Here, Mearsheimer's insistence on the need for Middle East retrenchment, in order to concentrate on the more serious rivalry with China, suffers from a major flaw in logic.

History suggests that when a great power draws down from a region, another takes advantage and fills the void. And indeed, as America grows weary of its involvement in the Middle East, China is filling the vacuum. As a result, states in that region are using relations with China to push back against America, with few economic or political consequences. Unfortunately, American policymakers seem blind to this fact, looking at countries such as Syria and Iran, or those in Asia, as discrete issues, rather than as constituent parts of the broader great game that is taking place.

Though China is not widely seen a major power in the Middle East, especially in the Gulf, it should be. Through its economic strength and power of attraction, the country has made major inroads that cannot be dismissed, and may be laying the key foundations for a new balance of power.

China's ''rise'' has captured the imagination of many in the Arab world. Gulf rulers in particular stand in awe of how China's economy has skyrocketed (see the chart below) while rejecting Western norms and maintaining its own political structures. So fast has China's rise been that, since 2000, it has achieved practically 30 percent yearly average trade growth rate with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, 26 percent with the UAE and Iraq, and 28 percent with Iran

Meanwhile, America's trade with the Gulf is in decline. Total trade decreased by $6.3 billion from 2012 to 2013. While some gains were made, the losses include a $3 billion drop in trade with Saudi Arabia and a $6 billion drop with Iraq. A reduction in oil imports accounts for a majority of this, but U.S. exports to Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman were also all down over this period. Chinese trade data for 2013 has yet to be reported, but based on these trends China has, or will this year, overtake America as the largest trading partner for every Gulf state.

Total Gulf Trade Comparison (in millions of dollars)

Gulf State

China

America

2000

2012

2000

2012

Bahrain121.1

1,550.8

786.6

1,911.90

Iran2,486.5

36,465.8

185.6

253.20

Iraq974.9

17,567.5

6,076.3

21,318.80

Kuwait615.5

12,556.9

3,568.2

15,704.40

Oman3,321.3

18,787

457.3

4,605.10

Qatar472.2

8,483.2

676.7

3,101.30

Saudi Arabia3,098.3

73,314.2

20,589.8

73,638.90

UAE2,494.5

40,420.2

3,256.5

24,799.60

Total13,584.3

209,145.6

35,597

145,333.20

Source: U.S. Census Bureau: U.S. Bureau of the Economic Analysis; National Bureau of Statistics of China

At the microeconomic level, Arabs and Iranians are becoming more aware of China in their daily lives. In Dubai, locals are increasingly shopping at the Dragon Mart, a mile-long mall where more than 4,000 Chinese vendors sell everything from basic goods to Qur'ans. Chinese motorcycles are commonplace, as are low-priced cell phones, cameras, shoes and cigarettes. China is even exporting large amounts of halal meat, raised and butchered in its Muslim-populated Ningxia region, to the Gulf.

Meanwhile, China has spent considerable time and energy wooing Gulf States with soft power. Beijing has provided no-strings development funding, as well as a CCTV station to broadcast news in Arabic favorable to Chinese views. It is also trying to appeal to Arab youth through Confucius centers in the region aimed at framing how these youth see China, while also offering a growing number of scholarships for students to study in China. China's efforts have paid dividends. Recent polling showed that Arabs think China is the preferred global superpower: by 23 percent to America's 7 percent.

Middle Eastern energy resources are seen as part of China's core national interests, vital to its continued growth, domestic stability, and thus the very survival of the Communist Party. Like the U.S., China fears instability in the Gulf that could produce energy supply disruptions and price spikes. These fears were institutionalized after the 2003 Iraq War, when China's leadership believed American policy was destabilizing the region's energy markets. It was at this point that China began to develop long-term strategies that would initially help it to contain American influence in the Gulf, while it developed enough power to form a new multipolar balancing alliance with regional states to curtail American unilateralism.

China's core aim is to constrain the United States without direct confrontation. Such confrontation is unlikely in certain key areas where Chinese aims overlap with those of America. Elsewhere, though, Beijing can be seen acting more as a direct competitor to the U.S. In addition, China has developed the ability to accomplish its goals partly through its own efforts, but more so by exploiting America's missteps. Saudi Arabia is a case in point.

Saudi irritation at American foreign policy has provided an opening for China, whose support is not conditional on human rights reforms or democratization. America's tentative decision to support the Arab Spring movement in Egypt'--dislodging Mubarak who was considered a regional security pillar by the House of Saud'--damaged relations. So too did the U.S. decision not to act against the Syrian regime.

While ties with America were fraying, Saudi Arabia reached out to China. Since 2009, the Kingdom has dramatically increased oil exports to help China and has awarded it half a dozen major projects on healthcare, energy exploration, mining, and railroad construction in the Kingdom, totaling more than $2 billion. So important is the burgeoning relationship with Saudi Arabia that King Abdullah's first state visit after ascending to the throne was to China in 2006. The visit resulted in Saudi Arabia giving more help to China to develop an increased refining capacity for its oil. Since then, the Kingdom has also become the largest supplier of petrochemicals for Chinese textiles.

Not to be left out, Iran has made similar moves, awarding telecommunications contracts and construction projects to Chinese companies. Iraq, looking to regain its regional power status, is also opening up its oil fields to Chinese companies in order to increase revenues and develop stronger relations.

There are catches and traps, of course. While these agreements have helped China's development, the Chinese are just starting to understand the phrase, ''buyer beware.'' China's thrust into the region is presenting consequences and challenges that its foreign policy establishment does not wish, and may be ill equipped, to address. Like emerging international powers before it, China sees the dangers of the Gulf alliance quicksand, but may be unable to extricate itself. Each of the Gulf powers is trying to befriend the new kid on the block, pulling him to their side in the region's playground politics.

While there have been disagreements about Iran and Syria, the Saudis continue to enhance Saudi-Sino relations because they see them as the tool by which to free themselves from American policies in the region. Riyadh wants America's continued security backing, but with fewer conditions attached. It realizes that China is the vehicle by which it can square that circle, because China now provides it economic security.

This is not to over-hype the problems this poses for the United States. Rather than competing with China for resources, America's abundance of shale oil means it need not fear China's growing consumption. While China can now make it more laborious for America to operate in the Middle East, it cannot in the near term ''balance'' America in a traditional sense. America obviously retains tremendous power in the Middle East through its military and trade relations. Therefore, rather than fear China, it should point out China's policy discrepancies with others in the region while at the same time engaging with it.

Ultimately, Beijing's overall policy objective is the same as Washington's: stability. Cooperation on a range of important regional issues should thus be possible. Indeed, China could actually be the missing piece of the puzzle that America seeks, giving it the opportunity to reduce its regional footprint while ensuring greater stability.

Either way, China's growing status and power can no longer be ignored and must be factored into America's strategic thinking about the Middle East. The unseen price of the Asia pivot is that, while America focuses on China in Asia, China is being provided the time and space in the Middle East to develop and implement a skillful challenge to American power.

Since Dr. Vince Bertram's appointment in June 2011, Project Lead The Way has experienced record program growth of over 50 percent and flourished to serve the nation in more than 5,000 schools, reaching nearly 600,000 students annually. Under his leadership, more than 10,000 PLTW teachers have been trained, sponsor and partner support of PLTW has increased, Change the Equation recognized PLTW as one of only four organizations to immediately go to scale nationally, and the Social Impact Exchange named PLTW one of America's top 100 performing nonprofit organizations.

Recognized as a thought leader in education, Dr. Bertram has traveled extensively to address audiences throughout the United States and internationally on the issues of STEM education, workforce, and the economy. He was appointed by the U.S. Department of State as its speaker and specialist on STEM education in 2014; testified before the U.S. House of Representatives about the importance of STEM education in solving America's skills gap; and served as a speaker and panelist at numerous events including SXSWedu, US News STEM Solutions, and the Commonwealth Club of California. Dr. Bertram and PLTW were featured on Fox News' ''Beyond the Dream'' segment, and Dr. Bertram is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.

Prior to joining PLTW, Dr. Bertram was superintendent of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, where he led Indiana's third-largest urban school district to unprecedented improvements in student achievement, community collaboration, and operational efficiency.

Dr. Bertram is a member of the Indiana Education Roundtable and has held numerous leadership roles, including serving on the Clinton Global Initiative STEM Working Group and chairing the National Council for National Honor Society, as well as serving as director for several nonprofit boards. Dr. Bertram was named a ''Distinguished Hoosier'''--one of Indiana's highest honors'--by former Governor Mitch Daniels, and his peers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education honored him with the Intellectual Contributions/Faculty Tribute Award for his contributions to intellectual life at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Bertram earned his doctorate, specialist, master's, and bachelor's degrees from Ball State University, a master's degree in education policy and management from Harvard University, and an executive certificate in strategy and innovation from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is an alumnus of the Chicago Management Institute at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, and received an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Today's STEM RealitiesThe U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) will grow 17 percent by 2018'--nearly double the growth for non-STEM fields. By 2018, the U.S. will have more than 1.2 million unfilled STEM jobs because there will not be enough qualified workers to fill them. STEM is where jobs are today and where the job growth will be in the future.

Project Lead The Way, a K-12 STEM SolutionProject Lead The Way (PLTW) is the nation's leading provider of STEM programs. Our world-class curriculum and high-quality teacher professional development model, combined with an engaged network of educators and corporate and community partners, help students develop the skills necessary to succeed in our global economy.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, we deliver PLTW programs to more than 5,000 elementary, middle, and high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. PLTW schools can be found in rural, urban, and suburban districts; across all income levels; as well as in public, private, and charter schools.

PLTW's success in preparing students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed has been recognized by colleges and universities, Fortune 500 businesses, and numerous national organizations including Change the Equation, the Social Impact Exchange, and more.

New documents released by the FBI show that the Bureau is well on its way toward its goal of a fully operational face recognition database by this summer.

EFF received these records in response to our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for information on Next Generation Identification (NGI)'--the FBI's massive biometric database that may hold records on as much as one third of the U.S. population. The facial recognition component of this database poses real threats to privacy for all Americans.

What is NGI?

NGI builds on the FBI's legacy fingerprint database'--which already contains well over 100 million individual records'--and has been designed to include multiple forms of biometric data, including palm prints and iris scans in addition to fingerprints and face recognition data. NGI combines all these forms of data in each individual's file, linking them to personal and biographic data like name, home address, ID number, immigration status, age, race, etc. This immense database is shared with other federal agencies and with the approximately 18,000 tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the United States.

The records we received show that the face recognition component of NGI may include as many as 52 million face images by 2015. By 2012, NGI already contained 13.6 million images representing between 7 and 8 million individuals, and by the middle of 2013, the size of the database increased to 16 million images. The new records reveal that the database will be capable of processing 55,000 direct photo enrollments daily and of conducting tens of thousands of searches every day.

NGI Will Include Non-Criminal as well as Criminal Photos

One of our biggest concerns about NGI has been the fact that it will include non-criminal as well as criminal face images. We now know that FBI projects that by 2015, the database will include 4.3 million images taken for non-criminal purposes.

Currently, if you apply for any type of job that requires fingerprinting or a background check, your prints are sent to and stored by the FBI in its civil print database. However, the FBI has never before collected a photograph along with those prints. This is changing with NGI. Now an employer could require you to provide a ''mug shot'' photo along with your fingerprints. If that's the case, then the FBI will store both your face print and your fingerprints along with your biographic data.

In the past, the FBI has never linked the criminal and non-criminal fingerprint databases. This has meant that any search of the criminal print database (such as to identify a suspect or a latent print at a crime scene) would not touch the non-criminal database. This will also change with NGI. Now every record'--whether criminal or non'--will have a ''Universal Control Number'' (UCN), and every search will be run against all records in the database. This means that even if you have never been arrested for a crime, if your employer requires you to submit a photo as part of your background check, your face image could be searched'--and you could be implicated as a criminal suspect'--just by virtue of having that image in the non-criminal file.

Many States Are Already Participating in NGI

The records detail the many states and law enforcement agencies the FBI has already been working with to build out its database of images (see map below). By 2012, nearly half of U.S. states had at least expressed an interest in participating in the NGI pilot program, and several of those states had already shared their entire criminal mug shot database with the FBI. The FBI hopes to bring all states online with NGI by this year.

The FBI worked particularly closely with Oregon through a special project called ''Face Report Card.'' The goal of the project was to determine and provide feedback on the quality of the images that states already have in their databases. Through Face Report Card, examiners reviewed 14,408 of Oregon's face images and found significant problems with image resolution, lighting, background and interference. Examiners also found that the median resolution of images was ''well-below'' the recommended resolution of .75 megapixels (in comparison, newer iPhone cameras are capable of 8 megapixel resolution).

FBI Disclaims Responsibility for Accuracy

At such a low resolution, it is hard to imagine that identification will be accurate. However, the FBI has disclaimed responsibility for accuracy, stating that ''[t]he candidate list is an investigative lead not an identification.''

Because the system is designed to provide a ranked list of candidates, the FBI states NGI never actually makes a ''positive identification,'' and ''therefore, there is no false positive rate.'' In fact, the FBI only ensures that ''the candidate will be returned in the top 50 candidates'' 85 percent of the time ''when the true candidate exists in the gallery.''

It is unclear what happens when the ''true candidate'' does not exist in the gallery'--does NGI still return possible matches? Could those people then be subject to criminal investigation for no other reason than that a computer thought their face was mathematically similar to a suspect's? This doesn't seem to matter much to the FBI'--the Bureau notes that because ''this is an investigative search and caveats will be prevalent on the return detailing that the [non-FBI] agency is responsible for determining the identity of the subject, there should be NO legal issues.''

Nearly 1 Million Images Will Come from Unexplained Sources

One of the most curious things to come out of these records is the fact that NGI may include up to 1 million face images in two categories that are not explained anywhere in the documents. According to the FBI, by 2015, NGI may include:

46 million criminal images4.3 million civil images215,000 images from the Repository for Individuals of Special Concern (RISC)750,000 images from a "Special Population Cognizant" (SPC) category215,000 images from "New Repositories"However, the FBI does not define either the ''Special Population Cognizant'' database or the "new repositories" category. This is a problem because we do not know what rules govern these categories, where the data comes from, how the images are gathered, who has access to them, and whose privacy is impacted.

A 2007 FBI document available on the web describes SPC as ''a service provided to Other Federal Organizations (OFOs), or other agencies with special needs by agreement with the FBI'' and notes that ''[t]hese SPC Files can be specific to a particular case or subject set (e.g., gang or terrorist related), or can be generic agency files consisting of employee records.'' If these SPC files and the images in the "new repositories" category are assigned a Universal Control Number along with the rest of the NGI records, then these likely non-criminal records would also be subject to invasive criminal searches.

Government Contractor Responsible for NGI has built some of the Largest Face Recognition Databases in the World

The company responsible for building NGI's facial recognition component'--MorphoTrust (formerly L-1 Identity Solutions)'--is also the company that has built the face recognition systems used by approximately 35 state DMVs and many commercial businesses. MorphoTrust built and maintains the face recognition systems for the Department of State, which has the ''largest facial recognition system deployed in the world'' with more than 244 million records, and for the Department of Defense, which shares its records with the FBI.

The FBI failed to release records discussing whether MorphoTrust uses a standard (likely proprietary) algorithm for its face templates. If it does, it is quite possible that the face templates at each of these disparate agencies could be shared across agencies'--raising again the issue that the photograph you thought you were taking just to get a passport or driver's license is then searched every time the government is investigating a crime. The FBI seems to be leaning in this direction: an FBI employee email notes that the ''best requirements for sending an image in the FR system'' include ''obtain[ing] DMV version of photo whenever possible.''

Why Should We Care About NGI?

There are several reasons to be concerned about this massive expansion of governmental face recognition data collection. First, as noted above, NGI will allow law enforcement at all levels to search non-criminal and criminal face records at the same time. This means you could become a suspect in a criminal case merely because you applied for a job that required you to submit a photo with your background check.

Second, the FBI and Congress have thus far failed to enact meaningful restrictions on what types of data can be submitted to the system, who can access the data, and how the data can be used. For example, although the FBI has said in these documents that it will not allow non-mug shot photos such as images from social networking sites to be saved to the system, there are no legal or even written FBI policy restrictions in place to prevent this from occurring. As we have stated before, the Privacy Impact Assessment for NGI's face recognition component hasn't been updated since 2008, well before the current database was even in development. It cannot therefore address all the privacy issues impacted by NGI.

Finally, even though FBI claims that its ranked candidate list prevents the problem of false positives (someone being falsely identified), this is not the case. A system that only purports to provide the true candidate in the top 50 candidates 85 percent of the time will return a lot of images of the wrong people. We know from researchers that the risk of false positives increases as the size of the dataset increases'--and, at 52 million images, the FBI's face recognition is a very large dataset. This means that many people will be presented as suspects for crimes they didn't commit. This is not how our system of justice was designed and should not be a system that Americans tacitly consent to move towards.

For more on our concerns about the increased role of face recognition in criminal and civil contexts, read Jennifer Lynch's 2012 Senate Testimony. We will continue to monitor the FBI's expansion of NGI.

NEW YORK (AP) '-- A small study of casual marijuana smokers has turned up evidence of changes in the brain, a possible sign of trouble ahead, researchers say.

The young adults who volunteered for the study were not dependent on pot, nor did they show any marijuana-related problems.

"What we think we are seeing here is a very early indication of what becomes a problem later on with prolonged use," things like lack of focus and impaired judgment, said Dr. Hans Breiter, a study author.

Longer-term studies will be needed to see if such brain changes cause any symptoms over time, said Breiter, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Previous studies have shown mixed results in looking for brain changes from marijuana use, perhaps because of differences in the techniques used, he and others noted in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of Neurosciences.

The study is among the first to focus on possible brain effects in recreational pot smokers, said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The federal agency helped pay for the work. She called the work important but preliminary.

The 20 pot users in the study, ages 18 to 25, said they smoked marijuana an average of about four days a week, for an average total of about 11 joints. Half of them smoked fewer than six joints a week. Researchers scanned their brains and compared the results to those of 20 non-users who were matched for age, sex and other traits.

The results showed differences in two brain areas associated with emotion and motivation '-- the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens. Users showed higher density than non-users, as well as differences in shape of those areas. Both differences were more pronounced in those who reported smoking more marijuana.

Volkow said larger studies are needed to explore whether casual to moderate marijuana use really does cause anatomical brain changes, and if so, whether that leads to any impairment.

The current work doesn't determine whether casual to moderate marijuana use is harmful to the brain, she said.

Murat Yucel of Monash University in Australia, who has studied the brains of marijuana users but didn't participate in the new study, said in an email that the new results suggest "the effects of marijuana can occur much earlier than previously thought." Some of the effect may depend on a person's age when marijuana use starts, he said.

Another brain researcher, Krista Lisdahl of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said her own work has found similar results. "I think the clear message is we see brain alterations before you develop dependence," she said.

A federal agent carries a box from VIP Cannabis dispensary in Denver on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013, during a raid on the business. Federal agents raided an unknown number of marijuana dispensaries and growing sites in Colorado, confiscating piles of marijuana plants and cartons of cannabis-infused drinks just weeks before the state allows recreational marijuana retailers to open their doors. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) | ASSOCIATED PRESS

The raid on the four interconnected companies came during a search of more than a dozen medical marijuana businesses in Denver and Boulder -- the largest by federal law enforcers on Colorado pot businesses since the state legalized medical marijuana in 2000. The Denver Post reported Tuesday that no federal charges have been filed as a result of the raids and people involved in the businesses denied any connection to illicit drug activity or Colombian drug cartels.

Nevertheless, Colorado marijuana industry regulators are pursuing the shutdown of four of the raided businesses: VIP Cannabis, Kushism, and Highlands Cannabis Co. in Denver, as well as Grateful Meds in Nederland. State regulators notified the four shops on April 3 that state licenses to operate as medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities would be denied. The state alleged violations of state code that in some cases stretched back to 2012, according to state Marijuana Enforcement Division documents.

"You have operated the licensed premises in a manner that adversely affects the public health or welfare or the safety of the immediate neighborhoods in which your establishments are located," the state notice of denial reads.

The denial notices say regulators have placed administrative holds on the shops' inventory of "marijuana plants, marijuana, finished marijuana products, marijuana-infused products or other marijuana inventory." Shop owners have 60 days to request hearings on the denial notices.

Federal raiders seized more than $2 million worth of marijuana plants and products from VIP Cannabis. Owners Carlos Solano and Gerardo Uribe said the raid forced them to lay off more than 100 employees. They reopened about a month later.

Grateful Meds reopened about a week after the raids. Several other raided shops also have reopened, but Kushism and Highlands Cannabis Co. remain closed.

The Department of Justice has released little about the raids, which came less than two months before Colorado's legal recreational marijuana shops opened. Federal authorities suggested the businesses may not have complied with guidelines outlined in DOJ's August memo that assented to the new retail marijuana laws in Colorado and Washington state.

''While the investigation is ongoing, there are strong indications that more than one of the eight federal prosecution priorities identified in the Department of Justice's August guidance memo are potentially implicated," Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office, said of the November raids.

The DOJ guidance says federal authorities will continue to prosecute to prevent:

The distribution of marijuana to minors;Revenue from the sale of marijuana from going to criminal enterprises, gangs and cartels;The diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states;State-authorized marijuana activity from being used as a cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal drugs or other illegal activity;Violence and the use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of marijuanaDrugged driving and the exacerbation of other adverse public health consequences associated with marijuana use;Growing of marijuana on public lands and the attendant public safety and environmental dangers posed by marijuana production on public lands; andMarijuana possession or use on federal property."There is little information available about the details of the cases against these businesses, and we will be awaiting further details as they are released," Michael Elliott, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, told The Huffington Post. "We continue to believe that everyone needs to abide by the 500 pages of state marijuana law in Colorado, which includes state and local licensing, background checks, financial disclosures, mandatory video surveillance, testing for potency and harmful contaminants, child-resistant packaging, labeling, and seed-to-sale tracking with mandatory RFID tags."

These farms in the wilderness soak up a tremendous amount of water, especially at the peak of summer.

California's ongoing drought has been blamed on a lot of different factors, ranging from climate change to over consumption to the agricultural industry. But here's one more factor that may be draining California dry: marijuana farms. These farms '' some legal, most not '' soak up a tremendous amount of water in the wilderness. At summer's peak, each plant can soak up about six gallons of water a day, according to a recent report from McClatchy DC. It's so bad in some regions, particularly California's North Coast, that important fish populations are suffering.

Illegal pot farms in Northern California have already been linked to extensive wildlife deaths, as the farms are often protected with rat bait. This has even affected federally protected endangered species. (California banned the sale of rat poison last month to help protect wildlife.)

All of these problems are compounded by the fact that many pot farms are situated, illegally, on public land. "Those are lands that you and I own," Congressman Mike Thompson told McClatchy. "And when people are growing dope there and guarding their operations with guns and the likes, and sometimes with booby traps, we can't use the land that we own. It happens all over."

Other pot farms are apparently being set up in secret on land belonging to traditional farmers. "[Pot] grows hidden in trees on someone else's farm have become more and more common over the past two years," an undercover drug agent told KCRA in February. The National Guard reported that these illegal growers put pumps, dams and irrigation tubing on the sites, diverting water from the farmers' canals. These illegal sites also use pesticides, which end up in the water, sometimes in wells intended for drinking.

The marijuana industry, perhaps not surprisingly, says it is being scapegoated. "It's really easy to point fingers at a very large cash crop that's completely unregulated," Emerald Growers Association founding Chairwoman Kristen Nevedal told McClatchy. "It's one of the main cash crops of the state." Marijuana sales are projected to reach nearly $1 billion in California in 2014.

That number could actually be hard to predict: the California drought is predicted to tighten marijuana supplies and drive up pot prices around the country.

Veteran journalist Dan Rather recently looked into the problem of pot farming in California. You can see the first part of his report in the video below:

Josh Lefkowitz, PresidentJosh Lefkowitz guides the strategic vision for Flashpoint, where he leads all business development initiatives and manages day-to-day operations. He has served as a consultant to the FBI's senior management team and worked extensively with federal, state, and local authorities to track and analyze terrorist groups. In addition to his rich experience within the public sector, Mr. Lefkowitz gained deep insight into the critical intelligence challenges facing Fortune 500 companies and high net worth individuals while working for a top-tier, global investment bank. He remains committed to crafting products and services that can fill the current intelligence gaps afflicting governments, corporations, and consumers.

Mr. Lefkowitz holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BA from Williams College.

Evan Kohlmann, CIOEvan Kohlmann is responsible for innovation and product development at Flashpoint. He has served as a private sector International Terrorism Consultant who has spent over a decade tracking Al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations. He has served at various times as a contract consultant in terrorism matters on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTFY) at the Hague, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the U.K. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Scotland Yard's SO-15 Counter Terrorism Command, the Central Scotland Police, West Yorkshire Police, and the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET).

Mr. Kohlmann holds a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a BA in International Politics from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Josh Devon, CTOJosh Devon focuses on developing Flashpoint's software products, designing them to offer deep insight and analytics to users studying and monitoring terrorists, hackers, and other potential threat groups. Prior to joining Flashpoint in 2013, Mr. Devon co-founded the SITE Intelligence Group in June 2002 where he served as Assistant Director. Spending more than a decade researching the contemporary state of terrorism in the world, with an emphasis on jihadist use of the internet, he has assisted and consulted governments and non-governmental organizations in studying and monitoring terrorists and their supporters. Mr. Devon has published numerous articles intended to educate the public on issues surrounding terrorism. He speaks, reads, and writes Arabic.

Mr. Devon holds an MA from the School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, where he focused on Middle East studies. At the University of Pennsylvania, he received a BS in Economics from the Wharton School and a BA in English from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Al Qaeda: "We Must Eliminate the Cross..The Bearer of the Cross is America!"

Washington (CNN) -- A new video shows what looks like the largest and most dangerous gathering of al Qaeda in years. And the CIA and the Pentagon either didn't know about it or couldn't get a drone there in time to strike.

U.S. officials won't comment on that, but every frame of the video is now being analyzed by the United States.

In the middle of the clip, the man known as al Qaeda's crown prince, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, appears brazenly out in the open, greeting followers in Yemen. Al-Wuhayshi, the No. 2 leader of al Qaeda globally and the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has said he wants to attack the United States. But in the video, he looks unconcerned that he could be hit by an American drone.

The video started appearing on jihadist websites recently, drawing the attention of U.S. officials and global terrorism experts. U.S. officials say they believe it's authentic.

The video shows al-Wuhayshi addressing more than 100 fighters somewhere within Yemen, Cruickshank said, a restive nation on the southwestern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. The al Qaeda leader, he said, is "taking a big risk in doing this."

But he doesn't mince words about his mission.

In a speech to the group, al-Wuhayshi makes it clear that he's going after the United States, saying "We must eliminate the cross. ... The bearer of the cross is America!"

U.S. officials believe the highly produced video is recent. With some fighters faces blurred, there is worry it signals a new round of plotting.

"The U.S. intelligence community should be surprised that such a large group of al Qaeda assembled together, including the leadership, and somehow they didn't notice," said Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst.

There is good reason to worry.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, also known as AQAP, is considered the most dangerous al Qaeda affiliate. The CIA and the Pentagon have repeatedly killed AQAP leaders with drone strikes. But the group is now emboldened.

"The main problem about this group is that it has a bomb maker who can put bombs on to planes that can't be detected," Bergen said.

That bomb maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, is believed to be responsible for several attack attempts against the United States, including the failed 2009 Christmas Day underwear bomber attack in Detroit.

Al-Asiri doesn't appear in the video. He remains in hiding, and intelligence experts say he and other AQAP leaders have gone back to using couriers to communicate to avoid detection. That makes it even harder to figure out what al-Wuhayshi may order next.

But the terror group leader's goal is clear, Cruickshank said.

"His message to the United States," Cruickshank said, "was very much the same as (former al Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden's: 'We're coming after you.' "

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" that leaks tied to Yemen have affected U.S. intelligence collection, but he said he couldn't say whether U.S. intelligence knew about the meeting.

Asked by Blitzer whether the United States would have sent a drone if officials had known such a large meeting of terrorists was taking place out in the open, the Michigan Republican said it's unclear.

"It really depends," he said. "There are a lot of procedures that one would go through ... to do an airstrike on any large package of individuals."

Seeing such a group of al Qaeda operatives assembled isn't a surprise, he said.

"I think they have these meetings more often than people realize," Rogers said. "It's difficult to get assets in position. You have to know where they are and where they meet at the right time in the right place with the right equipment. That's a lot to do."

The video, Rogers says, is another sign that al Qaeda remains a dangerous threat.

"We think that they're feeling empowered. The less pressure you put on them, the more they take that as a victory, the more that they believe that they can get away with plotting, planning, organizing as you saw there (in the video), finance, training," he said.

"All of the things that they would need to do to strike a Western target, they're going through that process."

Retired Gen. Mark Kimmitt said smaller al Qaeda affiliates are coalescing into a more organized base.

"Sooner or later, if they continue to get better, stronger and more organized," he said, "they will be a direct threat to the United States."

It's unlikely the United States wasn't aware of the meeting shown in the video, Kimmitt told "CNN Tonight."

"The question isn't why didn't we know," he said. "The question is: What are we going to do about it?"

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on March 17, 2012, shows fire fighters at the scene following a two bomb attacks on security buildings in the heart of the Syrian capital Damascus which killed several people, state television said. AFP PHOTO/HO

Last week, a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee held a hearing provocatively titled ''Is Al-Qaeda Winning?'' The answers that the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade received were profoundly unsettling.

Former Senator Joseph Lieberman (I''Conn.) testified that Syria had become a key focal point of al-Qaeda's efforts. He noted that there are more foreign militants fighting in Syria today than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined over the past 10 years: ''Put very bluntly, Syria has become the most dangerous terrorist sanctuary in the world today'--and the United States has not coherent or credible policy for dealing with it.''

Frederick Kagan, director of the critical threats project at the American Enterprise Institute, warned that the Obama Administration has underestimated the threat posed by al-Qaeda's ideology, which has inspired a global insurgency. He assessed that al-Qaeda's ''brand is spreading like wildfire, the groups affiliating themselves with it control more fighters, land and wealth than they ever have, and they are opening up new fronts.''

Heritage Foundation analysts long have warned about the more permissive environment that al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups have exploited in many countries destabilized by the ''Arab Spring'' uprisings. Syria, in particular, has been a magnet for foreign militants and a rich recruiting ground for al-Qaeda.

>>> Read More: A Counterterrorism Strategy for the ''Next Wave''

Al-Qaeda has made a comeback in Iraq, and gained followers in Egypt,Libya, Mali, East Africa, and Yemen

The chief takeaway from the hearing was that the Obama Administration needs to focus more on the revolutionary threat posed by al-Qaeda and its affiliates in the Middle East and Africa. Furthermore, the administration should alter its narrow definition of the al-Qaeda threat, which it currently holds as the immediate terrorist threat posed by the al-Qaeda core group based in Pakistan.

Related:Al-Qaeda Seeks American Recruits in SyriaAl-Qaeda Resurges in IraqThese Words from Obama Are Frightening'--and Revealing

Text - H.R.4357 - 113th Congress (2013-2014): To deny admission to the United States to any representative to the United Nations who has engaged in espionage activities against the United States, poses a threat to United States national security interests

Shown Here:Introduced in House (04/01/2014)Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this legislative text may be shown by tags (e.g., or ) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF or HTML/XML.

[Congressional Bills 113th Congress][From the U.S. Government Printing Office][H.R. 4357 Introduced in House (IH)]113th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 4357 To deny admission to the United States to any representative to the United Nations who has engaged in espionage activities against the United States, poses a threat to United States national security interests, or has engaged in a terrorist activity against the United States._______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES April 1, 2014Mr. Lamborn (for himself and Mr. Bridenstine) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary_______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To deny admission to the United States to any representative to the United Nations who has engaged in espionage activities against the United States, poses a threat to United States national security interests, or has engaged in a terrorist activity against the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,SECTION 1. VISA LIMITATION FOR CERTAIN REPRESENTATIVES TO THE UNITED NATIONS. Section 407(a) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991 (8 U.S.C. 1102 note) is amended-- (1) by striking ``such individual has been found to have been engaged in espionage activities'' and inserting the following: ``such individual-- ``(1) has engaged in espionage activities or a terrorist activity (as defined in section 212(a)(3)(B)(iii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)(B)(iii)))''; and (2) by striking ``allies and may pose'' and inserting the following: ``allies; and ``(2) may pose''.

House Passes Bill Preventing Terrorists from Entering U.S. as U.N. Ambassadors | Ted Cruz | U.S. Senator for Texas

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Congressman Doug Lamborn, CO-05, today called for President Obama to immediately sign into law their bipartisan legislation that will prevent terrorists from getting visas to enter the United States as United Nations ambassadors.

''Congress has voted unanimously in support of a bill to reject Iran's deliberately insulting nomination of a known terrorist '' one of the 1979 hostage-takers '' to be their ambassador to the United Nations,'' said Sen. Cruz. ''I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for supporting it, and urge the President to act quickly. We, as a country, can send an unequivocal message to rogue nations like Iran that the United States will not tolerate this kind of provocative and hostile behavior."

''I have been working hard with House Leadership to move this bill even before it passed the Senate,'' said Congressman Lamborn. ''I appreciate House Leadership's rapid response to my request to quickly bring the Cruz/Lamborn bill to the House Floor for a vote. It will give the President the power to prevent an Iranian terrorist from entering our country with diplomatic immunity. This is a great example of leadership in action by both Houses of Congress. After Senator Cruz worked to ensure Senate passage earlier in the week, I felt that it was extremely important that the House respond in-kind by considering the Cruz/Lamborn bill in an expedited manner. It is great to see Congress send a strong, bipartisan message that Iranian evildoers will be treated like terrorists, not tourists. Terrorists, from Iran or elsewhere, should not be allowed to walk the streets of Manhattan with diplomatic immunity.''

Congressman Lamborn's bill, H.R. 4357, is companion legislation to Sen. Cruz's bill, S. 2195, which unanimously passed the Senate earlier this week. The legislation now awaits President Obama's signature to be put into law.

Recently, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani named Hamid Aboutalebi as the nation's new ambassador to the U.N., which is headquartered in Manhattan. Aboutalebi was an active participant in the group that held 52 Americans hostage in Iran from 1979-1981.

Paul Watson's take on this issue'...'...'...'...'.....Captain Paul WatsonApril 12Welfare Ranching Show Down in Nevada

There is a silly little drama going on in Nevada and the Neo Cons, the militias and the welfare ranchers would have us believe there is another Waco about to happen.

For some strange reason I am on the Conservative Daily mailing list. I think they confused the word ''conservation'' with the word ''conservative.''

Joe Otto who I assume speaks for the Conservative Daily sent me this message today (below) and I could not resist responding to it.

It's all about a rancher named Cliven Bundy who has not paid his grazing fees since 1990 and is now upset that the government has come to collect over two decades in back fees.

You see, Cliven believes that he has every right to graze his cows free of charge on public land. It's called welfare ranching and they believe their ''right'' to feed at the public trough trumps the right of endangered species to exist.

So I decided to inject my comments into Otto's somewhat hysterical letter defending Cliven and his fellow welfare ranchers from the tyranny of Obama. You see when anything happens they don't agree with, Obama is always at fault, and Obama is especially at fault when the thing the Neo Cons are upset with is something initiated by one of the two former Bush Presidents like this particular case.

By now you have probably heard about the crisis surrounding the Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada. In case you haven't, here is the basic synopsis.

(PW: Yes the Fox Network has their undies in a knot over this, which means it is hardly a major story elsewhere.)

Cliven Bundy is a cattle rancher whose family has lived near Bunkerville, NV for the last 140 years. The Bundy family's cattle have always grazed on what had always been state-owned, public land. In 1993, the Federal Government discovered that Bundy's grazing area was also home to the endangered Desert Tortoise. As a result, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) swooped in and took over control of the land. In order to dissuade farmers and ranchers from using the land and threatening the tortoise population, the BLM instituted a policy where ranchers would be forced to pay a grazing fee before using the land.

(PW: Let me see, the Bundy family has lived on the land for 140 years and the desert turtle has lived there for hundreds of thousands of years. The Bundy family took their land by force from Native Americans but the turtles were there even before the Native Americans. In 1993, the government did not discover that the grazing area was home to the turtle. They knew that. What they discovered was that the turtle was endangered and one probable cause was over-grazing by rancher Bundy's cows.)

For Cliven Bundy, this was an unacceptable affront to his livelihood. His family has lived off this land for over a century, long before the creation of the BLM, and the idea that he would now have to pay a tax to protect a turtle was nothing short of absurd.

(PW: To the turtles it is an unacceptable affront to their right to survive as a species. Rancher Bundy believes the turtle's right to survive is absurd yet he believes he has a God-given right to graze his cattle for profit at public expense. It is also not a tax but a grazing fee. In exchange for the fee, Bundy gets to graze his cattle. Bundy wants free food for his cows at public expense. In other words he wants welfare.)

So, Bundy refused to pay the tax. He allowed his cattle to graze on the land and didn't pay the federal government a dime to do it. Why should he? The land is technically state-owned public land, yet the federal government want's a cut because of an endangered turtle. Well, after twenty years of court battles, the Bureau of Land Management has finally swooped in and begun confiscating Bundy's cattle at gunpoint to pay the $1.1 million that he owes in back ''grazing fees'' for using public land! This is absurd and should be a wake-up call to everyone! The government doesn't care about common sense or decency'... these militarized agencies and bureaus will use every law, regulation, and technicality to come after YOU with the full weight of the Federal government!

(PW: The law assessed a fee and rancher Bundy refused to pay the fee for over two decades and now he seems surprised that the government has called to collect back fees. Otto states the land is state owned and public but somehow rancher Bundy has a right to use it free of charge. Bundy owes back fees and the government is collecting those back fees by the confiscation of the cattle that Bundy has been raising at the expense of the public. It's a classic case of welfare ranching where the rancher believes he is entitled to have his animals raised for slaughter at public expense. I hope the government does use every law, regulations and technicality to collect the back fees and to protect the right of the turtles to survive.)

Tell Congress to STOP the out-of-control militarization of agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and put an end to the Obama administration's intimidation tactics!

(PW: I intend to tell Congress in the words ''Good on you for defending the turtles and enforcing the grazing fees.''

How despicable is this'... The federal government is seizing a rancher's cattle because he didn't pay a $1.1 Million ''grazing fee'' that was set up to protect a damn turtle! Anyone with half a brain can see that this is ludicrous'... yet the government continues to wage its war on Cliven Bundy and proceeds to seize his cattle at gunpoint.

(PW: If anyone else does not pay their bills, they forfeit their property. Why should ranchers be exempt and above the law. Why should the public support Cliven's damn cows? Why do his damn cows have more rights than the desert tortoise? The government is not waging war on Bundy, they are simply enforcing the law. Personally I disapproved of the fee myself. He should have been banned completely from grazing his cows on the land occupied by an endangered species.'')

I've said it before: It is absolutely ridiculous that we have so many militarized, non-law enforcement agencies in government. Agencies like the Department of Education, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the IRS, and even the Bureau of Land Management have been arming themselves to the teeth for years.

(PW: I've never seen an armed IRS agent, That would be scary, hell they are scary enough unarmed. I have certainly never seen an armed member of the Department of Education but considering all the school shootings, that might not be a bad idea. A law has been broken and it is being enforced. Pretty damn straight forward to me.)

Now, the full weight of the government has come down on the Bundy ranch. There are snipers watching the family's movements, armed agents rounding up cattle, and the BLM has effectively made the whole area a ''constitution free zone,'' or at least that's what they want it to be. The land is public land on a public road. Yet, anyone who wants to protest the government's tyrannical actions is limited to doing so within a preset ''First Amendment Zone'' set up by government officials.

(PW: Can someone tell me where in the Constitution it says that ranchers have the right to graze for free on public land? The land as Otto says is public land on a public road. It is not Clive Bundy's land. It is however turtle land. Thank you United States government for defending our endangered turtles. As for snipers, the fact is with dozens of trigger happy militia nut bars in camo, armed to the teeth, the deployment of snipers seems like a reasonable response. I admit the First Amendment zone is unacceptable but by order of the Governor of Nevada it has been taken down.)

That is ridiculous, and the protesters have fanned out, taking their frustration directly to the federal agents. In the last two days, one protester has been tackled to the ground and another has been shot with a stun gun. Now, militias from around the country have been mobilized and are beginning to arrive in Nevada to defend the ranch from this clearly tyrannical action. One county official warned the ''inbred'' militiamen (his words, not mine) from neighboring Utah that if they come to Cliven Bundy's aid, then they ''better have funeral plans.''

(PW: Oh no not the Mormons!!! I hope this is not another Mountain Meadow Massacre. It is amazing to see so many ultra conservatives ready to rise up and die to defend welfare rights for ranchers. Oh the tyranny of collecting unpaid bills.)

How despicable is that? Rather than defend the local rancher against the government thugs, the local Clark County Commissioner is actually threatening people if they show up to help him!

(PW: Yes I would imagine that the Clark County Commissioner would be opposing mob rule. When a bunch of wild eyed men in camo arrive with heavy weaponry it is reasonable for the County Commissioner to condemn their invasion of his county.)

I pray to God that there isn't bloodshed. I really hope that the Federal government realizes that they are waging this war over nothing but a damn turtle and pull back. I mean, think about it'... people could actually die over a dispute over cattle grazing on a turtle sanctuary'... What on earth is this world coming to?

(PW: It is a world where human greed is eradicating endangered species and diminishing biodiversity. Otto you said it yourself, it's a turtle sanctuary. It seems to me that people would be making a decision to risk dying for some damn cow. I think the turtle is much more deserving, after all it is a sanctuary for turtles. This is not a dispute over a turtle anyhow, it is a dispute over the fact that a welfare rancher has refused to pay his grazing bill.)

The fact remains that this is just one of the latest attempts for the Federal government to use loopholes to seize property for the ''common good.'' There is a case in Colorado where a couple's mountain cabin is being seized and demolished to create ''open space.'' The government is actually using eminent domain to seize a piece of property just to create more open space.

(PW: If you build a cabin on public land you don't have rights to the land just because you built the cabin. People have seized too much open space for their own use and by doing so they deprive nature of open space for wildlife. Nature needs more open spaces, more turtles and fewer cows.)

Rather than using common sense and restraint, the Federal government looks for every opportunity to come down hard on average citizens! This has to stop!

(PW: If citizens are a threat to the survival of an endangered species they should be stopped. Welfare ranchers are not average citizens, they are people who have grown rich at the public expense.)

The government shouldn't be allowed to levy $1.1 Million fines on hard working Americans because their family's ranch's historical grazing grounds are now occupied by an endangered turtle! Americans from across the country shouldn't have to mobilize in order to fend off tyrannical government agents!

(PW: It is not a fine, it's a grazing fee, a fee that rancher Bundy has refused to pay for over two decades. Bundy's lands are not now being occupied by an endangered turtle. The turtle's land is being occupied by Bundy's cattle.)

What if the government came into your home or business and threatened you because of a technicality or nonsense regulation? Things like this happen every day across America because we have given the Executive branch and its numerous agencies too much power over our lives!

(PW: When the U.S. Court and the IRS came after us for defending whales they were acting on the request of the Japanese whalers, I did not see many conservatives defending our rights to defend the whales. No most of them were defending the ''right'' of Japanese whalers to use American courts to stop American whale defenders.)

The Obama administration wouldn't even send in one soldier to protect our ambassador in Benghazi, but it has sent in over 200 agents to harass a rancher in Nevada! This is despicable! The time has come to rein in these out of control, militarized government agencies. Congress must put an end to the Obama administration's intimidation tactics!

(PW) Wow, they actually managed to fit Libya into their rant. That's a stretch. The law removing free grazing rights came under the George H. Bush administration, not Obama.)

Tell Congress to STOP the out-of-control militarization of agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and put an end to the Obama administration's intimidation tactics!

I will tell them in the words of George W. Bush, ''Go get 'em boys.'' We need to put an end to Welfare ranching.

It didn't take long for civilization's oldest profession to collide with the economy's latest fad: the New York Post says Airbnb is the new coolest way to run a brothel.

The crux of the "sharing economy" is that someone else's property becomes yours for as long as you're willing to pay for it, usually no questions asked. In the case of Airbnb, you're going to miss out on room service, but in exchange for missing amenities, you get free reign of a stranger's apartment, without regulation or oversight. This is terrific if you want to break the law:

"It's more discreet and much cheaper than The Waldorf," said the sex worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Hotels have doormen and cameras. They ask questions. Apartments are usually buzz-in."

The prostitute, a buxom brunette who charges up to $500 an hour, said her escort service generally rents an Airbnb apartment in the Financial District or Midtown West for up to a week at a time '-- then cycles numerous hookers through the place for trysts around-the-clock.

One Airbnb user who unwittingly rented her pad to a Manhattan sex worker tells the Post she returned to find it filled with condoms and baby wipes, which is slightly better than hosting an orgy, but still not fun. The startup put the accidental brothel madame up in a nice hotel and offered to clean her flat for free, but it clearly wasn't enough to prevent another PR black eye.

With the majority of Americans living in coastal states, rising water levels can have potentially large impacts.

There is strong evidence that global sea level is now rising at an increased rate and will continue to rise during this century.

While studies show that sea levels changed little from AD 0 until 1900, sea levels began to climb in the 20th century.

The two major causes of global sea-level rise are thermal expansion caused by the warming of the oceans (since water expands as it warms) and the loss of land-based ice (such as glaciers and polar ice caps) due to increased melting.

Records and research show that sea level has been steadily rising at a rate of 0.04 to 0.1 inches per year since 1900.

This rate may be increasing. Since 1992, new methods of satellite altimetry (the measurement of elevation or altitude) indicate a rate of rise of 0.12 inches per year.

This is a significantly larger rate than the sea-level rise averaged over the last several thousand years.

Escalating carbon dioxide emissions will cause fish to lose their fear of predators, potentially damaging the entire marine food chain, joint Australian and US research has found.

A study by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims), James Cook University and the Georgia Institute of Technology found the behaviour of fish would be "seriously affected" by greater exposure to CO 2.

They found that fish living near the vents, where bubbles of CO 2 seeped into the water, "were attracted to predator odour, did not distinguish between odours of different habitats, and exhibited bolder behaviour than fish from control reefs".

The gung-ho nature of CO 2-affected fish means that more of them are picked off by predators than is normally the case, raising potentially worrying possibilities in a scenario of rising carbon emissions.

More than 90 per cent of the excess CO 2 in the atmosphere is soaked up by the oceans. When CO 2 is dissolved in water, it causes ocean acidification, which changes its chemistry.

The Aims study found the diversity of fish at the CO 2 vents was not influenced, but that fish nerve-stimulation mechanisms were altered, meaning the smell of predators became alluring.

"What we have now also found in our study of fish behaviour in this environment is that the fish become bolder and they venture further away from safe shelter, making them more vulnerable to predators," said Alistair Cheal, co-author of the research.

While fish at the vents faced fewer predators than usual, the consequences for fish in the wider ocean could be significant as more CO 2 was dissolved in the water.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Why fish are losing fear of predators

Over the winter, as polar vortices plunged the U.S. Midwest into weeks of unceasing cold, the icy covers of the Great Lakes started to make headlines. With almost 96 percent of Lake Superior's 32,000 miles encased in ice at the season's peak, tens of thousands of tourists flocked to the ice caves along the Wisconsin shoreline, suddenly accessible after four years of relatively warmer wintery conditions.

The thing is, all of that ice takes a long time to melt. As of April 10, 48 percent of the five lakes' 90,000-plus square miles were still covered in ice, down from a high of 92.2 percent on March 6 (note that constituted the highest levels recorded since 1979, when ice covered 94.7 percent of the lakes). Last year, only 38.4 percent of the lakes froze over, while in 2012 just 12.9 percent did '' part of a four-year stint of below-average iciness.

And as the Great Lakes slowly lose their historically large ice covers over the next few months, the domino effects could include lingering cold water, delayed seasonal shifts, and huge jumps in water levels.

Already, the impact of this icy blockade can be felt. On March 25, five days after the official beginning of spring, the Soo Locks separating Lake Superior from the lower Great Lakes opened for the season. But after a long and harsh winter, Lake Superior's nearly 32,000 square miles were still nearly entirely covered in ice. It would be another eleven days before the first commercial vessel fought its way across Lake Superior '' with the aid of several dedicated ice breakers '' and down through the locks.

The trip across Lake Superior to the Soo Locks, which usually takes 28 hours, took these first ships of the season nine days. A third ship had to return to Duluth after being damaged by the ice (Detroit District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Facebook).

More than 200 million tons of cargo, mostly iron ore, coal, and grain, travel across the Great Lakes throughout the year. Even a little ice can make a big dent on this total. Only three shipments of coal were loaded up during March '' 69 percent less, by volume, than last year. Shipments of iron ore from the northern reaches of Minnesota were so low that the U.S. Steel plant in Gary, Indiana, had to scale back production significantly in early April.

A sluggish start to the shipping season is just one of the cascading effects of the Midwest's cold and icy winter. Some are good, and will allow the region to recover from years of historically low water levels. Others, like this delayed shipping season, less so.

Like the shipping troubles, some of the more unexpected things the lakes and their ecosystems could face in the next few months are the direct result of the lingering ice and cold:

Throughout the winter, huge numbers of ducks that feed by diving below the water for fish ended up starving to death. Connie Adams, a biologist in New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, told the AP that the die-off was "unprecedented."Next in line for concern are a huge number of the Lakes' fish species. Warming water temperature often biologically triggers migration to traditional spawning grounds, and experts expect that Northern Pike, lake sturgeon, steelhead, and rainbow trout could make moves far later this year. As Shedd Aquarium research scientist Solomon David told Michigan Radio, later egg laying could mean younger and far weaker fish come next winter, leading to an even longer impact.Other changes will come about long after the ice melts, as water levels are predicted to rebound to levels not seen in the last few years. Seasonal shifts in water levels, with winter lows and summer highs, are normal. "If things stayed in sort of a balance, we would see all the lakes water levels going up and then going down. Every year: up, down; up, down," says Drew Gronewold, a scientist with NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. But, "when water levels change a lot over time, something is happening in one of those two parts of the season."

Over the last few years, the summer highs and winter lows have both been well below their long-term average, as climate change produced far more rapid rates of evaporation. In December 2012, the Michigan-Huron system set a new low, breaking a record that had stood since the 1960s, according to Keith Kompoltowicz, the chief of watershed hydrology for the Army Corps of Engineers' Detroit District.

A three-year look at water levels in Lakes Michigan and Huron, including a six-month forecast, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District. The solid red line marks recorded levels, the red vertical lines a range of six-month projections, and the blue shows the long-term averages. The black bars indicate record highs and lows.

Though Kompoltowicz says the usual March and April rise in water levels is occurring later than usual this year, already the lakes are seeing water levels that they haven't had for several years. This past March marked the first time since April of 1998 that Lake Superior had reached its long-term average. And over the next few months, melting snow will feed the lakes and colder water could lower the rates of summer and fall evaporation. The amount of rain could either add to or subtract from this total. The Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration generally forecast water levels six months out, and predicted levels for this September, Kompoltowicz says, range from 10 to 13 inches higher than lake levels were a year ago.

Here's what higher lake levels could mean:

Shippers may be hurting now, but higher lake levels will allow them to load more cargo per boat later this year, according to the Chicago Tribune. These higher water lines also mean that those who manage the Great Lakes' harbors won't have to invest huge sums of money in dredging out the bottom. Ships will carry more, at less of a cost, once the ice melts.Fluctuations in water levels could also help maintain the diversity of plant and animal species along many coastal wetlands, according to Kurt Kowalski, a wetland ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes Science Center. Too many years of consistently low water allows certain species, often non-native plants, to take over.And even far less large-scale ripple effects will matter. Scott Stevenson, the executive vice president of the company that manages Chicago's harbors, told the Tribune that higher water levels will allow them to rent out 100 expensive slips along the lakefront that shallow water took out of commission last year.Though water level changes even over a several year period are normal, the rebound from record-low water levels is going to be a relief from the hand-wringing of the last few years. But it will likely be a temporary one. A hot summer with little precipitation could mute the effects of the icy winter. And, even if the lakes have more water this year, 2014 could be nothing more than a blip as climate change continues to wreak havoc. "We don't know, as this winter really exemplified, what's going to happen," Gronewold says. "If we're going to have three more severe winters, or flip back to three more winters like we've had the past few years."

Dwarfed by piles of snow left over from winter, pedestrians make their way along Palmerston Avenue recently. Photo Store

Congratulations, Winnipeggers, you are in the midst of surviving the worst winter on record since 1898.

That's right, 1898, when the Spanish-American War was raging and the Montreal Victorias won their fourth-straight Stanley Cup. The year of the first recorded motor-vehicle fatality and the year Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium.

Yeah, that long.

"Nobody alive can say they've had it colder in Winnipeg," Dave Phillips, the national meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Friday. "The story about this winter was the relentlessness of it. There was really no break. It was from the get-go. Even October was a half-degree colder than normal.

"Nobody had the look and feel of winter more than Winnipeg," he said. "So if we award the prize for citizens who've endured the toughest winter, I think you guys would win gold. I'm not sure you want to brag about misery, but... "

According to Phillips, the average temperature in December was -20.5 C, followed by January (-20.0 C) and February (-19.9 C). Then came March, which averaged -12.5 C, almost seven degrees colder than average.

That's what sent Phillips scouring the record books of Winnipeg temperatures dating back to the 1870s. He calculated the average temperature during the past four months at -18.3 C. In 1898, the average Winnipeg temperature from December to March was -18.4 C.

Even more impressive, said Phillips, was the severity of a 2014 winter in the age of global warming.

"It's hard to break a cold-weather record nowadays," he said. "When you compare Winnipeg to 1898, think about it -- there was only about 40,000 people. No cars. No heavy industry. No pavement. Not a lot of burning going on. So when you think you can break a record this year with all the urbanized effect, what they talk about in terms of climate change, it really is quite remarkable."

But wait, there's more. The average number of days the temperature plummets to -30 C is 12 in Winnipeg. This year, "there were 30 of those suckers," Phillips said.

"So not only was it persistent, but it was intensely cold," he said.

So while all the newsworthy issues associated with this winter -- blizzards, potholes, frozen water pipes -- have dominated the headlines, Phillips noted there's another cost: heating.

"Just to keep comfortable, you have to burn about 17 per cent more heating fuel because of the demands of the cold," he said. "So you can grin and bear it, but it takes money out of your pocket, too."

Not cold enough for you? Then consider that despite the length and depth of cold this winter, the snowfall now stands at 155 centimetres, well above the average of 100 cm.

One plus of the coldest winter in more than a century is it probably has a positive effect on modest flood forecasts. Why? "It's been so cold it's probably the driest snow that's ever existed in the city," Phillips said.

But just remember that despite temperatures climbing to near zero Friday, April can also be cruel. In fact, 12 per cent of snowfall, on average, comes after April 1.

"You don't write the obituary on winter unless it's late May," Phillips said. "It's not going to happen overnight. You're not going from slush to sweat.

UPDATE: See more on his big contribution to the truth community at the end of this article, getting John Deutch out of the way for George Tenet and his ''grand plan'' against al CIAda

'--'--'--

''Let's see what we can do to make each other feel better'' Michael C. Ruppert'... then he kills himself

According to the stories here, here and here, Michael C. Ruppert has taken his own life as seemingly predicted in January of this year in the little documentary, Apocalypse Man, he made for the new propaganda outlet VICE. During that video he said he was ready to go and that he had relocated to that tribal village he was living in ''to die''

As of late we have had three separate ''truther'' incidents involving a stabbing, a shoeing and now a suicide. Those conspiracy theorists are obviously dangers to us, politicians and themselves. It seems the country is in the midst of a Truther Crisis!

Oh, I wonder how they'll solve this one? Maybe some kind of re-education camps? Someone call Cass Sunstein. He'll have the answers!

Ruppert wasn't much of a ''truther'' to be honest. Not in my opinion anyway. And this, his latest high profile exit from the ''truther'' world isn't this drama queen's first'... if you recall.

''The only way we can live, have our children live, is to stop human industrial activity right now'' Michael NWO Spokesman Ruppert

Mr. Ruppert made a career out of pretending to be a ''truther'' while promoting every NWO agenda from resource grabbing to global warming to population reduction and here he is, on the VICE propaganda documentary telling ''truthers'' we have to de-industrialize the world, which is clearly part of that NWO agenda.

Michael is gone?

good

Yeah he wrote some books and yes, he was right about the CIA importing coke into this country and 9/11, but he also pushed the global warming scam as well as the now defunct ''peak oil'' theory.

In the VICE interview the guy ranted on and on about how technology is evil and destroying the world while he crawled into his little sweat lodge with a feather in his hair. Of course, while expounding upon the evils of technology, he was running a website, had a Facebook page with 5,000 ''friends'' and a weekly podcast and was currently making deals with a network for a new TV show. Do you think he arraigned all of that with smoke signals?

Somehow I doubt it.

Last week he went to Seattle to film a pilot episode for a network series he was too star in. He stayed at the Marriott with all the business folks. He complained about that as well'... afterward.

In his final podcast (you can listen to here) he dedicated a stupid song (which was obviously meant to be read as a cry for help) to the likes of Abby Martin for all that ''courageous'' work she's doing.

That should tell you all you need to know right there.

He and his co-host, Carolyn Baker, opened up the phone lines about midway through the show. No one called in at first for a long time. Ruppert concluded that meant everyone wanted to hear him and his buddy continue with their deep analysis of the subject when it probably meant no one was listening.

Baker is a ''spiritualist truther'', whatever that means. She made a point to say ''this isn't a fake suicide'' when she announced his ''suicide'' on her Facebook page. Yes, the woman who claims we all need to escape from ''the Matrix'' has a Facebook page.

''Sunday night following Mike's Lifeboat Hour radio show, he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. This was not a ''fake'' suicide.'' Carolyn Baker

That is literally the first mention of his suicide and the very next sentence she states ''this is not a fake suicide''

?

Really?

What does that make you think? Makes me think it IS a fake suicide and she's just an idiot. ''Spiritualist truther''? Well, there you go.

For those of you who have been around this alternative ''redpill'' reality for a while, you might recall this isn't Michael Ruppert's first dramatic exit.

Back in 2006, Michael ran away to Venezuela claiming he was being harassed by the feds and they were breaking his offices at From the Wilderness. He promised he would never come back.

''Personally, I am through forever with investigative journalism and public lecturing. I am leaving public life. It is my hope that by continuing to repeat this sincere position that many of the inexplicable difficulties which have dominated my life over the past months will ease. It is time to move on. I spent twenty-seven years as a dedicated public activist and that is something which I am no longer able or inclined to do. The price was ultimately too great.'' Ruppert

In actuality, Ruppert was sued for back rent on the office space in Ashland where he was located (about an hour south of CIAland) and there were many complaints from his subscribers (yes, he operated a paid subscription site for telling folks ''the truth'') that they hadn't received any newsletters since they moved there. He also ran afoul of a former employee who stated he sexually harassed her by coming into her office ''wearing nothing by his underwear and a smile''. She sued him and won $125,000

He then moved to Toronto and eventually to New York city where he received treatment. Apparently the fear of the ''feds'' wasn't that strong.

Then he moved to Cali where he ran his network again and published a new book, obviously not keeping much of a ''low profile'' so apparently the feds didn't harass him very much while he continually promoted peak oil (a rationalization for our imperial resource grabbing across the Middle East and elsewhere) and global warming.

Imagine that.

In the VICE video at the end of the program (see part 6 here), Mr. Ruppert seems to be calling for the (or predicting) massive ''die off'' of human population, stating that before oil was discovered there were 1 billion people on the planet and that now at 7.1 billion, life as we know it is unsustainable. His conclusion is that there must be a ''die off'' in order to ''maintain balance''.

For those of you who know, what he just basically said was the ''natural order of things'' is actually a key aspect of the new global order, the massive reduction of the human population. It's actually the first inscription on the Georgia Guidestones. ''Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.''

''We can't feed any more people. We can't fit anymore people on the planet'... climate collapse has brought us to a point where we face the end of our species within 17 years at the outside'' Michael Drama Queen Ruppert

uh'... yeah, except we can feed the people on this planet if the billionaires who think like Michael really wanted to, if there was more profit in it.And we only got 17 more years before global warming ends it all? Hell, that's even a worse prognosis that Al Gore gave before he bought his billion dollar waterfront estate.

So thanks for all that ''truth'' Michael. Anyone else wondering why his podcast was getting such low ratings?

I guess the ''die off'' he's been calling for just started with.. Michael. Either that or he retired down in that secluded Mexican green zone with fellow fake ''truther'' Jessie Ventura.

Adios. Bye bye. Thanks for the memories. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

'--'--'--

UPDATE: Everyone gives Ruppert all this credit for showing up at a high school and spilling the beans about the CIA importing coke in front of then CIA director John Deutch but what people don't seem to take into consideration is that move actually facilitated Deutch's leaving the CIA and a guy by the name of George Tenet taking his place. Where did the ''whistleblower'' Ruppert get that intel which ultimately only served to get a more vicious careerist in place preceding 9/11? He got it from his CIA linked family.

''Initially, I thought it'd be interesting to talk to one such whistle-blower, to learn more about what makes the clock tick in his world where the bad guys aren't just in the movies. Mike Ruppert was a good candidate. For one thing, he had connections. His mother was a cryptographer for the NSA (National Security Agency). His father was an Air Force officer involved with the Titan IIIC project that launched the CIA's satellite surveillance system. He has cousins who were CIA agents, one of whom was with the OSS during WWII. And Mike himself was a highly regarded LAPD narcotics agent who was at one time engaged to a CIA domestic operative'' Tom Dooley, 1998

So even the very first thing he did to garner credibility in the alternative news circles, was actually an ambush designed to get someone out of office who may or may not have gone along with the program and replace him with someone who would. Was Ruppert simply helping facilitate an in-house coup at the CIA? Did Tenet put him up to it through his multiple CIA linked family members?

UPDATE: And let's be clear, all he did back in '96 was hijack Gary Webb's research on the CIA trafficking operation published in San Jose Mercury News in an article called ''Dark Alliance''

This is what Gary said about Ruppert:

''Mike is a real conundrum. I think he's a sincere guy, concerned about the right things, and he was quite supportive of my efforts to expose the interplay between the CIA and drug traffickers. But he's also written stories expounding a theory about the genesis of my Mercury News series that were, quite frankly, ridiculous.'' Gary Webb

Ruppert himself called people ''Internet trailer park trash'' when they had questions about how Webb killed himself by shooting himself in the head.. twice.

''In my opinion, Mike Ruppert is at best a blowhard gatekeeper who only cares that he is the ultimate mouthpiece of the alternative and Internet media, cashing in big time, or at worst, he is is a disinformation agent for one or more of our international alphabet soup intel agencies. When he first came to my attention, I bought his early 9/11 video.'' Internet Trailer Park Trash

Michael C. RuppertRetiredLAPD narcotics investigatorAllegianceUnited States of AmericaRankLAPD narcotics investigatorOther workWhistleblower and author of Crossing The Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of OilMichael C. Ruppert (Feb. 3 1951 - April 13 2014[1]) was an American author,[2] a former Los Angeles Police Department officer,[3] and investigative journalist and peak oil awareness advocate.[3][4][5][6][7]

Until 2006, he published and edited From The Wilderness, a newsletter and website covering a range of topics including (international) politics, the C.I.A., peak oil, civil liberties, drugs, economics, corruption and the nature of the 9/11 conspiracy.[8][page needed] He is also the author of Crossing The Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil[2] and was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Collapse.[4]

He was president of Collapse Network, Inc until he resigned in May 2012,[9] giving 35% of his 55% share back to founders of the company.[10] He hosted The Lifeboat Hour on Progressive Radio Network.[11]

On November 15, 1996, then Director of Central IntelligenceJohn Deutch visited Los Angeles' Locke High School for a town hall meeting. At the meeting, Ruppert publicly confronted Deutch, saying that in his experience as an LAPD narcotics officer he had seen evidence of CIA complicity in drug dealing.[12] The confrontation was handled by Deutch poorly, resulting in his termination from the CIA.

Ruppert went on to become an investigator and journalist[13] and established the publication From The Wilderness, a watchdog publication that exposed governmental corruption, including his experience with CIA drug dealing activities.[14]

Ruppert is the author of Crossing The Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil,[15] published in September 2004. Crossing The Rubicon claims that Vice President Dick Cheney, the US government, and Wall Street had a well-developed awareness of and colluded with the perpetrators of 9/11.

Ruppert appears in the documentary films The 911 Report You Never Saw - The Great Conspiracy, Peak Oil - Imposed by Nature,[16]Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, The End of Suburbia, American Drug War: The Last White Hope and Collapse.

From The WildernessEditFrom The Wilderness was a newsletter published from 1998 to 2006 by the media company From The Wilderness Publications. The newsletter covered political and governmental issues. It was published eleven times per year but featured weekly updates online. Critics such as David Corn[17] and Norman Solomon argued that Ruppert on occasion veered off into making unsubstantiated conspiracy theory claims.

In the summer of 2006, claiming government harassment and fearing for his life, Ruppert with Raul Santiago left the United States for Venezuela, vowing not to return.[18]

The Ashland Daily Tidings would later report that, in June 2006, Ruppert had accused a former female employee of burglarizing the offices of From The Wilderness, a case in which Ruppert himself was considered a potential suspect. Around the same time, the former female employee accused him in turn of sexual harassment. Ruppert would later in 2009 be ordered to pay a $125,000 fine by the Oregon labor board in the case. The female employee claimed Ruppert fired her after she refused his sexual advances, Ruppert denies this and claims he fired her for "disruptive behavior, poor work performance and wearing inappropriate clothing". The former employee further claims Ruppert approached her in her office "wearing only his underwear and a smile", something Ruppert doesn't deny.[19][20][21]

The end of From The Wilderness was announced in a post at the website on November 7, 2006. Reasons for the closure were detailed in the article. Ruppert claimed his bad health, glitches that disabled their web store, "problems of human origin" and his departure to Venezuela had led to the demise of From The Wilderness.[22]

Later that year, Ruppert flew to Toronto, Canada, for medical treatment. The following statement was posted on the From The Wilderness website on November 26, 2006:

"Personally, I am through forever with investigative journalism and public lecturing. I am leaving public life. It is my hope that by continuing to repeat this sincere position that many of the inexplicable difficulties which have dominated my life over the past months will ease. It is time to move on. I spent twenty-seven years as a dedicated public activist and that is something which I am no longer able or inclined to do. The price was ultimately too great."[23]

After shutting down, From the Wilderness was sued by their landlord for unpaid rent owed on their Ashland office space.[19]

Further activitiesEditSome of his posting from him on the From the Wilderness website said Ruppert was back in New York, receiving treatment from "sympathetic physicians" for a variety of ailments.

Ruppert still occasionally contributes to the Collapse Network news desk run by former From the Wilderness associate and longtime friend, Jenna Orkin.

As recently as 2010, Ruppert lived in Los Angeles, California and launched Collapse Network to build sustainable communities across the world. But in 2011 he announced on his Lifeboat Hour radio show that he was relocating to Sonoma County, California, because he thought that it would be a safer location in the event of societal collapse. Ruppert left the Collapse Network in May 2012.

Columnist Norman Solomon has argued that Ruppert has a flawed analytical model. "Some of the problem is in how he characterizes news reports. These citations can be narrowly factual yet presented in a misleading way. Yes, such-and-such newspaper reported that thus-and-so claim was made by so-and-so. The paper reported on the claim, but that doesn't mean the claim is true."[24]

Columnist David Corn has also criticized Ruppert's methodology, and dismisses the idea that conspiracy theorizing is useful: "In fact, out-there conspiracy theorizing serves the interests of the powers-that-be by making their real transgressions seem tame in comparison."[25] Ruppert responded with an open public letter to Corn saying that Corn is not able to disprove any of Ruppert's claims.[26]

By Bill Van Auken17 April 2014As the government of President Nicols Maduro entered a second round of talks with Venezuela's right-wing opposition, a leading national daily reported that the number of military officers under arrest for involvement in an alleged coup plot has risen to over 30.

The talks, which have been billed as a vehicle for pulling Venezuela out of its political and economic crisis, and the alleged military conspiracy have both unfolded in the context of two months of nationwide protests, riots and street blockades organized by the right with the aim of forcing the year-old administration of Maduro from office. Those organizing the violent street clashes, which have claimed at least 40 lives, have enjoyed longstanding political support and funding from Washington.

Citing unnamed high level sources at the Miraflores presidential palace, Ultimas Noticias reported that among those in custody were the Rivero Lago brothers'--one of them a colonel and the other a lieutenant colonel'--two officers from the National Guard, two from the Navy and one from the Army. The majority of those implicated were from the Air Force, as were the three generals whose arrests were announced three weeks ago: Oswaldo Hernndez Snchez, Jos(C) Machillanda D­az and Carlos Milln Yaguaracuto.

According to the report, the plot had been set to unfold on March 20, at the height of the violence orchestrated by the right and was to include air maneuvers and the strafing of Army soldiers as part of a plan to trigger nationwide upheavals and a military seizure of power.

The investigation, according to the report, had uncovered links between the alleged military conspirators and at least one leading member of the right-wing opposition.

President Maduro, whose public announcement of the arrest of the three generals coincided with last month's arrival in Venezuela of a mission of foreign ministers from the UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) seeking to mediate between the government and the right, made no comment directly on the revelation of a significantly wider coup plot.

In a rally called to mark the first anniversary of his election as president on April 15, however, he warned that a coup was being prepared to overthrow his government as a ''strategic play by the great powers'' to gain control of Venezuela's oil reserves and use them as a means of ''dominating'' Russia, China and India.

''The world must know that the coup against the Bolivarian revolution is also a coup against the independent energy development of the world,'' Maduro said. He added that, if this strategy were successful, it would sink the economies of 18 Caribbean countries that benefit from Petrocaribe, a Venezuelan program providing subsidized oil, and open the door to their ''recolonization.''

Even while denouncing the coup threats against his government, Maduro has moved ahead with talks with the right-wing opposition aimed at reaching an accommodation. After a six-hour publicly televised round held last week, the two sides met for closed-door discussions on Tuesday.

At the end of the meeting, the two sides announced that the government's rightist opponents had agreed to participate in a ''pacification'' plan being prepared by the government to crack down on the country's high crime rate.

Ram"n Guillermo Aveledo, the secretary general of the opposition coalition known as MUD (Democratic Unity Roundtable), said that the opposition, which controls three of Venezuela's states, 76 municipalities and the metropolitan Caracas government, would work together with the government. ''We are prepared to coordinate on the plans for security and peace,'' he said.

While the government rejected an opposition call for a blanket amnesty decree freeing all those being held for political violence, the opposition leader indicated that the government was amendable to consideration of individual cases.

In particular, the two sides discussed the case of Ivn Simonovis, the US-trained Caracas metropolitan police commander, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the shootings that killed 19 demonstrators and wounded around 60 more during the CIA-backed coup against then-President Hugo Chavez in April 2002. Aveledo said that in the spirit of ''national reconciliation,'' special attention would be given to Simonovis's case as well as to those of other police jailed on similar charges. The opposition is also seeking the release of right-wing leaders jailed for instigating violence during the current round of protests, including Leopoldo L"pez, the head of the Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) party.

The two sides also agreed to the broadening of a ''Truth Commission'' proposed by the government to investigate responsibility for the violence that has plagued the country since mid-February. The opposition said that it would bring allegations of 60 cases of torture or ill-treatment of detainees to the commission.

In addition, agreement was reached on opposition participation in panels naming members of the judiciary and the national election commission.

Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Arreaza, who headed the government negotiators, said that the right-wing opposition was also invited to work jointly on policies to confront the country's economic problems and had been asked to submit ''constructive criticisms.''

Mediating these talks are the foreign ministers of three UNASUR countries'--Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador'--and the Vatican's representative in Venezuela.

In recent Senate testimony, US Secretary of State John Kerry, who had previously denounced the Venezuelan government for what it called a ''terror campaign against its own people'' and threatened US sanction, voiced Washington's ''strong support'' for the UNASUR's mediation efforts and expressed the hope for an ''honest dialogue'' to deal with ''the legitimate demands of the people of Venezuela.''

Clearly, the hope of Washington'--like that of the Venezuelan right itself'--is that with the aid of the UNASUR governments and the Vatican these talks can be used to push the Maduro government further to the right. Colombia, the closest US ally in Latin America, is serving as one of the mediators, while Brazil's position was indicated in a statement made by the country's former president Lula da Silva, who called for Maduro to form a coalition government with the right as a means of ''diminishing tension.'' Lula insisted that a power-sharing deal must be reached because, for Brazil, ''Venezuela is strategic.''

The talks have generated increasing unease within the Venezuelan working class as the government has engaged in ''peace conferences'' with the country's wealthiest businessmen and big business associations and ''dialogue'' with the right, while implementing policies that have driven down real wages, including currency devaluations and the lifting of price controls.

The last two months of violent protests have been concentrated in wealthy and better-off middle class neighborhoods, while the masses of Venezuelan workers and poor have shunned them. Nonetheless, rising prices, shortages of basic necessities and repression of workers' strikes has generated rising popular anger against both the government and the right.

This has found pale reflection in protests by unions at their exclusion from any of the discussions of the crisis organized by the government. Last week, leaders of the Workers Federation of the western state of Zulia protested that ''until now only the powerful economic groups and capitalists are the ones that are meeting with the government'' seeking their own interests.

And in Caracas, Servando Carbone, secretary of FENTRASEP representing public sector workers, charged that workers were facing their own violence in the form of layoffs, attacks on their rights and the use of government security forces to suppress their struggles and even jail them.

''The exclusion of workers' organizations from the entire setup implemented by the national government to seek solutions to the economic crisis and social peace for us only provokes alarm,'' he said.

Between the threat of military coup and the turn by the Maduro government toward a common policy with the Venezuelan right on economic and social questions, the Venezuelan working class is confronted with intense and growing dangers.

By Kumaran Ira14 April 2014On Saturday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in France and in Italy, protesting the social-democratic governments' austerity measures and pro-market labour reforms.

The protest in Rome, attended by tens of thousands of people, ended in violence as police attacked protesters. The police used tear gas and baton-charged demonstrators. There were dozens of lighter injuries among police and protesters, and at least six arrests, police said.

In France, the protest was called by the unions and their pseudo-left supporters, the New Anti-capitalist Party and the Left Front, a coalition of the Stalinist French Communist Party (PCF) and the Left Party of Jean-Luc M(C)lenchon. In the rally, Alexis Tsipras, the chairman of the Greek Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), marched alongside Pierre Laurent of the PCF, M(C)lenchon and NPA spokesman Olivier Besancenot. Tsipras is the European Left (EL) candidate for the Presidency for the European Commission in the European elections.

Turnout at the Paris protest was around 25,000 people, according to police estimates, though the PCF claimed 100,000 participated. Several other protests were also called in other French cities, including a protest of 1,600 in Marseille.

In Paris, protesters carried banners criticizing austerity measures being carried out by the Socialist Party (PS) government of President Fran§ois Hollande. Banners read, ''Enough, Hollande,'' ''If you're left-wing, you tax the financial sector,'' ''If you're left-wing, you help the workers,'' or ''If you're left-wing, Europe means people first.''

The relatively low turnout for the rally in Paris, despite deep opposition to the social agenda of the EU and of France's PS government, reflects deepening popular disillusionment and anger with the reactionary politics of the European pseudo-left. The rally drew largely on the membership and periphery of the pseudo-left parties and had the air of a family festival.

The Left Front and the NPA play a similar role to their counterpart, Syriza, which helped the ''troika'''--the European Commission, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank'--impose devastating austerity measures on the Greek working class. While making tactical criticisms of EU policy, Syriza did everything to block social opposition and tacitly backed the crushing of strikes against austerity. This allowed the ''troika'' to cut wages by 30 percent or more and destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs.

As for the PS, after a humiliating defeat in the March municipal election that saw a significant victory for the neo-fascist National Front (FN), it is shifting further to the right, vowing to intensify austerity and making law-and-order appeals to the FN. The government is planning to slash '¬50 billion in yearly public spending under Hollande's so-called ''Responsibility Pact.''

The sharp turn to the right reflects the disintegration of bourgeois ''left'' politics in France and Europe as a whole. Workers' deep social opposition to these reactionary policies finds no expression in the reactionary politics of the protest organisers, the NPA and Left Front, however, which are key allies of the PS and supporters of the EU.

Their empty opposition to Hollande is a political fraud. The NPA and the Left Front supported Hollande against right-wing incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy during the 2012 presidential elections, working to promote illusions in the PS. While acknowledging that Hollande would carry out austerity policies, they claimed that the PS could be pressured to adopt left-wing policies. These claims have proven completely bankrupt.

After the rally, the Left Front and the NPA cynically claimed that they would not allow the PS to carry out austerity measures. Besancenot said, ''The message is clear, Manuel Valls is starting out with a first protest, and it's important because this means a new political scenario is opening.''

M(C)lenchon said, ''This is a message sent to the government'... There is a left in this country, and it is unacceptable for it to be usurped to carry out a right-wing economic policy.''

Such remarks are a backhanded acknowledgement of the widespread sentiment in the population that there is no political left in France, and that the PS and its allies, including the Left Front and the NPA, are indifferent or hostile to workers' interests.

The verbal opposition of M(C)lenchon and Besancenot to the PS offers nothing to workers seeking to fight EU-dictated austerity measures, however. They are mere political shadows of the PS itself. Their aim in calling this protest is to subordinate the working class to the reactionary agenda of the EU and the PS government, blocking a politically independent movement of the working class against the capitalist ruling elite.

The protest in Rome was called against rising housing costs, unemployment and labour market reforms amid a slowdown of the Italian economy. Protesters denounced the social-democratic Democratic Party (PD) government of Matteo Renzi, who is planning to reform labour rules to make it easier for companies to hire and fire employees.

Renzi was brought to power after his predecessor Enrico Letta failed to carry out economic reforms demanded by the European Union. Renzi has pledged that his government will enact economic reforms quickly, slashing public spending.

Those who ranked higher in "generalized trust" scored more highly on vocabulary and question comprehension.

Problem: Being too trusting is often associated with a sort of na¯vet(C) or foolishness'--if you really understood the way the world works, you'd be looking out for number one. You don't want to get played, be a sucker, fall prey to schemes or betrayal. None of the ''smart'' reality TV show contestants are here to make friends, right? Or at least, you know, the wily ones.

Science says trust is good for you, though, and it's good for society. Previous research has shown that ''generalized trust'''--that is trusting other members of society generally, rather than trusting your friends or family specifically'--is linked to better self-reported health and happiness. And ''countries whose citizens place greater trust in one another have more efficient public institutions and experience higher rates of economic growth.'' So notes a recent study published in PLOS One, which adds to the literature on the topic by looking at how generalized trust is related to intelligence.

Methodology: Noah Carl and Francesco C. Billari of the University of Oxford analyzed data from the General Social Survey, a nationally representative U.S. public opinion survey administered every one to two years. Generalized trust was measured by the question, ''Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can't be too careful in dealing with people?'' To measure intelligence, they looked at participants' scores on a 10-question vocabulary quiz (''Despite its brevity, the test has a correlation of 0.71 with'...an IQ exam developed by the U.S. Military,'' the study notes), as well as the interviewer's assessments of how well participants understood the survey questions.

Results: Both vocabulary and question comprehension were positively correlated with generalized trust. Those with the highest vocab scores were 34 percent more likely to trust others than those with the lowest scores, and someone who had a good perceived understanding of the survey questions was 11 percent more likely to trust others than someone with a perceived poor understanding. The correlation stayed strong even when researchers controlled for socio-economic class.

PLOS OnePLOS OneThis study, too, found a correlation between trust and self-reported health and happiness. The trusting were 6 percent more likely to say they were ''very happy,'' and 7 percent more likely to report good or excellent health.

Implications: ''The finding that generalized trust is highly correlated with intelligence, even after conditioning on socio-economic characteristics such as marital status, education, and income, supports the hypothesis that being able to evaluate someone's quality as a trading partner is a distinct component of human intelligence, which evolved through natural selection,'' the study reads.

The researchers posit that intelligent people might be better at correctly evaluating whether people are trustworthy, or whether a particular person is likely to act untrustworthily in a particular situation.

But despite the temptation to be on guard with others, knowing the benefits trust could have for yourself and for the community, it does seem like a pretty smart choice.

The study, "Generalized Trust and Intelligence in the United States," appeared in PLOS One

A sequence of important events that occurred in Saudi Arabia, simultaneously with the recent visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to that country, have roused close attention and numerous comments of analysts around the world. First of all, this is because the kingdom is one of the leading oil producers and exporters in the world. Moreover, not only is Saudi Arabia the leader of the so-called Sunni Arab bloc, but it also plays a major role throughout the Arab world. In addition, if we consider just these two roles, it is natural that any change in the leadership of this country would be cause for close attention of the world community.

The visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to Saudi Arabia, so widely touted in the West, has led to very disastrous results. Western, and especially American media, which greatly discussed this event on the eve of the visit, after the completion of the American president's mission, is now keeping silent. The formal reports were so brief that they produced the impression that this was a visit to some third-rate country, rather than a visit to the current leader of the Arab world, which is being asked to play a decisive role in the global arena.

After the talks with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Barack Obama said, trying to make the best of bad situation, that ''despite their differences, both countries continue their friendship and cooperation''. Thus, we can say that the optimistic plans of the Saudi rulers, that the Americans would pull their Middle East chestnuts out of the fire, have failed. As usual, the United States is only pursuing its selfish goals and plans, regardless of the opinions even of its old allies. This apparently explains the fact that the official statements on the visit of Barack Obama to Saudi Arabia were indecently chary. As the saying goes, if there is nothing good to be said, it is better to keep silent.

Indeed, as the events show, the Saudi king and his entourage are deeply disappointed by Washington's deviation from the previous strategic course, which has bound together both countries for 70 years '' and where Riyadh has always played the role of errand boy for the Americans. We should recall that on February 14, 1945, a historical meeting took place aboard the U.S. Navy ship USS Quincy in the Suez Canal. The U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia's King Abdul Rahman bin Saud Al Saud (Ibn Saud). Under this agreement, the U.S. guaranteed continued support for the Saudi royal family and the Aramco Oil Company, while they would provide an uninterrupted supply of the black gold. These relationships have been maintained almost until the last day, despite many ups and downs in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However now, Washington, being guided by its selfish reasons, is gradually beginning to depart from its unconditional support of Riyadh.

Nevertheless, one theme of Saudi-US negotiations, as diplomatic sources have noted, has been kept fully secret. This concerned the transfer of power in Saudi Arabia, given that the current King Abdullah is 90 years old, the Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz is 79, the governance of the country, in most cases, is being carried out by other people, but of course these are members of the Saud family. On this occasion, a well-informed Arabic newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi, citing Saudi sources, wrote: ''King Abdullah has learned his lesson from the change of power in Qatar, but still has not determined the time to transfer the crown and throne to his brother Salman bin Abdulaziz.'' It is well known that Crown Prince Salman, just like King Abdullah, has physical disabilities. Some persons close to the supreme authority of the kingdom claim that given the poor state of his health, Prince Salman apparently will refuse to accept the throne.

This is confirmed by the fact that Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was appointed as the Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. He has the potential to become the Crown Prince and King, in the case of death of any of the Saudi patriarchs, according to the TV channel Al Arabiya. Experts of the channel believe that this appointment reduces tensions around the question of succession to the throne in Saudi Arabia. The 70-year-old Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the youngest son of the founding father of the kingdom, is considered one of the main contenders for the Saudi throne. Since 2005, he has headed the country's intelligence services, and also served as the second Deputy Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. ''The 70-year-old Muqrin, stepbrother of the monarch,'' wrote the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, ''will inherit the throne upon the death, or refusal to take power, of the current Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, whose health may not allow him to take ascent the throne.''

The Saudi king also appointed his eldest son Mutaib, third heir in line to the throne, according to Saudi media. Prince Mutaib, the eldest son of the present King, will respectively, follow Prince Muqrin, who is second in line to the throne. As King Abdullah says, the health of the 79-year-old Crown Prince Salman is a major concern, and he may in the future refuse to lead the country. The Saudi monarch intends to call the so-called Allegiance Council, consisting of 34 representatives of the ruling Saudi family, to approve of his will. In accordance with the rules for succession of power in the Saudi Kingdom, the throne is passed inside the ruling family from brother to brother, by seniority. The Allegiance Council was created in 2006 to regulate the transition of power by the right of succession. In case of the death of the king, this council enthrones the successor and appoints the next crown prince.

The thing is that Abdul Rahman bin Saud Al Saud (Ibn Saud), who founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, left a testament to his sons, which stipulated the transfer of power from one son to another. Ibn Saud was a very amorous Bedouin, who only officially was married to 19 women, not counting the so-called temporary, brief marriages. Annually, for almost 10 years, Ibn Saud went to a Saudi Arabian city for one day, visiting during a local Muslim holiday. There, he formally married one of the women, spent the night with her, and in the morning got divorced and returned to Riyadh. The following year, that woman would show him the child that was born during that year and the whole procedure was repeated. However, neither these women nor their children were considered as legitimate family for Ibn Saud. His official wives gave birth to 21 daughters and 45 sons, or perhaps more, as the special committee, which was created to find the heirs of Ibn Saud, keeps working hard and is always giving different figures. In other words, there are very many contenders to the royal throne, but Ibn Saud, who died in 1953, apparently did not anticipate that the issue of succession would be very relevant after 80 years. Today, the total number of members of the family of Saud reaches 25,000 people, including more than 200 princes.

It should be noted that the influence of the members of the royal family is primarily determined by their belonging to a particular family clan, whose members are connected to each other with close kinship relations (usually brothers and uncles on their mother's side). In their activities, the princes have to confine themselves to the position, occupied by their clan. However, they make wide use of solidarity within the clans, and provide mutual support in obtaining government positions and consolidating their positions in state structures. The most important family clan is the Al Sudairi. The ''core'' of the clan was constituted by seven sons of King Abdulaziz from Hassa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi. The ''second generation'' of princes, the clan support, is mainly represented by the sons of the ''Seven Sudairi''.

A certain counterbalance to the influence of the Sudairi clan in the ruling family and the state is created by the Sunaiyan clan of eight brothers '' the sons of former King Faisal. The most prominent of them is the Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. According to some accounts, the Sunaiyan clan is patronized by King Abdullah, who is, on his mother's side, the representative of a less influential clan than Sudairi '' the Shammar clan.

Enormous changes are brewing in Saudi Arabia now, and a change of generations may occur, as King Abdullah and Crown Prince Salman are not just old, but seriously ill. Tensions are increasing and contradictions are spreading in the ruling Saud family, because the younger generation no longer wants to live by the standards of the 18th century Wahhabis. The protests of the Shiite minority, living in the country's main oil production areas, are also growing. The shortsighted policy of involving the kingdom in conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Egypt and Iraq has damaged the country. Hostility towards Iran, which is quickly coming out from Western isolation is artificially fomented. Everything seems to indicate that these changes will happen very soon, and they will affect not only the country, but also the entire Arab world. These will have an impact on the overall global policy.

Viktor Mikhin, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine''New Eastern Outlook''.

While the western media paints Vladmir Putin as some cross between Napoleon and Hitler marauding across Europe breaking international laws willy-nilly, there is one red line he is apparently unwilling to cross. In a somewhat surprising turn of events, none other than Edward Snowden called in to a Putin live telethon and asked the Russian President: "Does Russia intercept millions of citizens' data?" Putin's response (whether true or not) is worth paying attention to by his opponent on the world stage: "Russia uses surveillance techniques for spying on individuals only with the sanction of a court order. This is our law, and therefore there is no mass surveillance in our country."

Via RT,

Russian intelligence agencies use special media to tap and spy only after a court decision, says Vladimir Putin, answering the question by former NSA agent Edward Snowden on whether the Russian government spies online.

The Russian president said that he like Snowden used to work as a former intelligence officer and said that there is no mass scale or uncontrollable surveillance in Russia as there is in America.

''Russia uses surveillance techniques for spying on individuals only with the sanction of a court order. This is our law, and therefore there is no mass surveillance in our country'', Putin said.

Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who leaked detailed National Security Agency documents on how information is stockpiled on millions of Americans as well as world leaders, appeared via a video link from an undisclosed location to ask Vladimir Putin his question.

patrick.goodenoughPatrick covered government and politics in South Africa and the Middle East before joining CNSNews.com in 1999. Since then he has launched foreign bureaus for CNSNews.com in Jerusalem, London and the Pacific Rim. From October 2006 to July 2007, Patrick served as Managing Editor at the organization's world headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Now back in the Pacific Rim, as International Editor he reports on politics, international relations, security, terrorism, ethics and religion, and oversees reporting by CNSNews.com's roster of international stringers.

patrick.goodenoughPatrick covered government and politics in South Africa and the Middle East before joining CNSNews.com in 1999. Since then he has launched foreign bureaus for CNSNews.com in Jerusalem, London and the Pacific Rim. From October 2006 to July 2007, Patrick served as Managing Editor at the organization's world headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Now back in the Pacific Rim, as International Editor he reports on politics, international relations, security, terrorism, ethics and religion, and oversees reporting by CNSNews.com's roster of international stringers.

MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them '-- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.

MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Reston, VA 20194. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.

Copyright (C) 2014, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.

VIDEO- "I Do Still Believe That The Plane Was Taken! There's Enough Evidence Of It Having Been Flown" - YouTube

Additional LinksVimeoHelpMoreUpgradeDid you know?Show another tipPulling back the curtain on your filmmaking process is a great way to engage your viewers. Learn how to shoot a behind-the-scenes video.

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Created at the direction of the President of the United States, IC ON THE RECORD provides immediate, ongoing and direct access to factual information related to the lawful foreign surveillance activities carried out by the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Students of the Pennsylvania high school where a violent and bloody knife attack left 22 injured '-- four still in critical condition '-- will return on Tuesday to the place where the horrific events unfolded, school officials said Sunday.

Franklin Regional High School students will be given the chance to walk through the hallways with their families on Tuesday, the school said in a statement.

Ryan Bailey, a student at Franklin, said he hasn't fully comprehended the tragic events yet, but he thinks Tuesday's walk through will help him and his friends cope.

"I hope that on Tuesday, when students can go to the high school and walk around, it will start to set in," Bailey told NBC News.

''Even the strongest of students will be uneasy.''

On Wednesday, students will return to classes just one week after Alex Hribal, 16, allegedly wounded 21 students and a security guard while brandishing two kitchen knives.

A prayer service will be held before the opening bell at 6:30 a.m., said Travis Deans, a coordinator at the National Network of Youth Ministries.

After prayer by the flagpole, local musician and Franklin alum Noah Rabe will hold a worship music service on the football field.

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Rabe told NBC News he believes the prayer and music will help calm the teens on Wednesday, but ''even the strongest of students will be uneasy.''

Rabe graduated last year, and many of his friends who are still students at the school witnessed the chaos.

''They've told me life has been a blur since Wednesday," Rabe said. ''Every student I've talked to has had an unsure and frightened tone in their voice, even if we're not talking about the stabbings.''

While it will be painful to return, "there is nothing that the district could do to make me feel safer," Bailey said. "It is terrible what happened on Wednesday, but nothing could have been done to prevent it."

"Our school district has experienced a tragedy beyond our understanding,'' Franklin Regional District Superintendent Dr. Gennaro Piraino said in a statement.

Piraino said a private company would ''clean and restore our building to pre-incident condition'' by Monday, when the teachers are scheduled to return.

Still, the events of Wednesday's violence cannot be scrubbed with cleaning supplies, and Franklin Regional promised to have counselors available for students and staff, as well as "heightened supervision," Assistant Superintendant Mary Reljac told NBC News.

"Our goal on Wednesday is to operate according to our regular schedule," Reljac said.

As his classmates planned to return to school, Jared Boger, 17, whose stab wound sits just millimeters away from his heart, underwent his fourth surgery on Sunday, and was still in critical condition, said Cyndy McGrath, a spokeswoman at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

McGrath said the surgery on Boger's abdomen was successful, and he was improving but struggling to speak. ''He has been communicating with his parents by tapping and by writing some things on a tablet,'' McGrath said.

Three additional students were still in critical condition at Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, Pa., said Jesse Miller, a hospital spokesman.

Investigators are still trying to determine why Hribal may have randomly knifed Boger and nearly two dozen others.

''Something went wrong, somewhere,'' defense attorney Patrick Thomassey said Saturday night, although he said his client doesn't have a history of mental illness and has not mentioned ever being bullied.

Hribal is being held without bail on four counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated assault and a misdemeanor count of carrying a prohibited weapon.

Thomassey said he wants to move the charges against Hribal to juvenile court, where he could be rehabilitated for possible mental health issues. Prosecutors have charged Hribal as an adult and, if convicted, he could face a sentence of up to 585 years in prison.

Jumping Joe Biden was in Boston today on the anniversary of the Marathon bombings.Biden told the survivors of last year's terrorist attack '' ''It was worth it.''

''To those quote ''survivors,'' My God, you have survived and you have soared. It was worth'... It was worth it. I mean this sincerely, just to hear each of you speak. You're truly, truly inspiring. I've never heard anything so beautiful with what all of you just said.''

Twitchy has reaction.

More'...Patty added:

Biden either thinks words up as he goes or he has a speech writer out to get him.

VIDEO-Police Are Testing a "Live Google Earth" To Watch Crime As It Happens

In Compton last year, police began quietly testing a system that allowed them to do something incredible: Watch every car and person in real time as they ebbed and flowed around the city. Every assault, every purse snatched, every car speeding away was on record'--all thanks to an Ohio company that monitors cities from the air.

The Center for Investigative Reporting takes a look at a number of emerging surveillance technologies in a new video, but one in particular stands out: A wide-area surveillance system invented by Ross McNutt, a retired Air Force veteran who owns a company called Persistent Surveillance Systems.

McNutt describes his product as "a live version of Google Earth, only with TiVo capabilities," which is intriguing but vague (and also sounds a lot like the plot of this terrible Denzel movie). More specifically, PSS outfits planes with an array of super high-resolution cameras that allow a pilot to record a 25-square-mile patch of Earth constantly'--for up to six hours.

It's sort of similar to what your average satellite can do'--except, in this case, you can rewind the video, zoom in, and follow specific people and cars as they move around the grid. It's not specific enough to ID people by face, but, when used in unison with stoplight cameras and other on-the-ground video sources, it can identify suspects as they leave the scene of a crime.

The PSS system has been tested in cities including Baltimore and Dayton, and, last year, police officers in Compton used it to track crimes, including a necklace snatching. In one case, they could track a criminal as he approached a woman, grabbed her jewelry, and then ran to a getaway car. They eventually drove out of frame, which meant they weren't caught'--but, as the Compton police explain in this video, the system told them that this particular car was involved, at the very least.

Plenty of critics argue the technology is an ominous invasion of privacy: Video surveillance free of any traditional technological barriers, tracking everyone and everything that moves in a city. But according to police and its creators, it's not as invasive as other systems, because it can't see into homes or identify faces. It "allows us to provide more security with less loss of privacy than any of the other options that are out there," says one officer. That's definitely one way to look at it. [Center for Investigative Reporting]

VIDEO-Man arrested after leaving backpack at Boston Marathon finish line

(NECN) - Kevin Edson, a 25-year-old Boston man, was detained Tuesday night and the area near the Boston Marathon finish line evacuated after an unattended backpack was found.Boston Police said a backpack was left unattended by the finish line at 6:50 p.m. There was a second bag, but that was not left by the suspect. The Boylston Street area was shut down for about 3 hours, with pedestrians and motorists asked to avoid the area.

NECN witnessed a man being put in the back of a police cruiser on Tuesday night. Boston Police said the suspect faces charges of threatening battery, disorderly conduct, possession of a hoax explosive device, threats to commit a crime, disturbing a public assembly and disturbing the peace. According to the Suffolk District Attorney, he is expected to be arraigned on those charges Wednesday in Boston Municipal Court.

"With the marathon coming, we are taking it seriously," Boston Police Superintendent Randall Halstead said. "Our officers have been trained in looking for any kind of suspicious activity. I want to emphasize the fact that the safety of the public is utmost, and the training my officers have gone through will come to the forefront. That's what we're going to do to make this the best marathon in the wake of last year."

Halstead said the suspect was taken into custody after an officer saw him "walking down the middle of Boylston Street in the rain, barefoot." Eyewitnesses also told NECN the man was wearing all black with a veil and hat covering his face and he was screaming. He also had blue and yellow paint on his face. The officers who stopped Edson also noticed a rice cooker in the man's backpack. Fragments consistent with a rice cooker were recovered after it was detonated by police.One backpack was detonated by the bomb squad around 8:50 p.m. The second bag was detonated shortly after 9:30 p.m. Boston Police later said that both unattended bags were "disrupted" for precautionary reasons.NECN General Manager Mike St. Peter released a statement saying, "One of the two bags that police detonated last night belonged to a NECN news crew. The crew had put down their bag - which contained cables - while on the scene covering last night's developments. They were not permitted to retrieve the bag when the area was quickly evacuated. The NECN crew cooperated while asking officers several times if they could get their bag back. Because of the ongoing investigation, police denied access. Once the scene was cleared, the crew picked up the remains of the bag." NECN is owned by NBCUniversal.

Shortly before 10 p.m., fire engines were seen leaving the area, and people were allowed back onto the streets.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was made aware of the situation at the marathon finish line, but said it was premature for him to say much on Tuesday night.

"You hear this stuff often of times where people do foolish things," Walsh said. "I'm hoping it's just an accident and somebody left something'... I'm hoping it's nothing serious."

Green Line service was temporarily suspended between Haymarket and Kenmore due to the Boston Police activity in Copley Square, but it was restored around 9:50 p.m.

For up-to-the-minute news and weather, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

When Colorado voters passed Amendment 64 back in November of 2012, they set in motion a system for adults to legally obtain recreational marijuana. But there's been less attention on how to keep it away from those for whom it's still illegal - anyone under 21. Parents and educators are struggling to fill the void, but public health campaigns are only in the planning stages.

From the HERE AND NOW Contributors Network, Colorado Public Radio's Jenny Brundin explores how some parents and educators are talking about marijuana with kids.

JENNY BRUNDIN, BYLINE: If you're wondering whether teens are getting more marijuana since it went legal a few months ago, just ask any student like this senior outside a Denver high school.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: It's really easy to get. I could probably get some right now.

BRUNDIN: School administrators are more concerned now, not just because students are having an easier time getting it but that they don't think it's bad for them. Like this kid going to a sports practice.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: I know lots of places to get it. You don't get, like, crazy when you're on it. You don't do stupid stuff. You can kind of think. It just makes you feel better.

BRUNDIN: And it's harder for parents to spot now because it comes in so many different forms according to Denver Public Schools' Mandy Copeland.

BRUNDIN: Copeland's a health educator, the only one in Denver schools empowered to talk to students confidentially about their drug use. She says it can be tough for parents to know what to do.

COPELAND: A lot of my students can talk their parents out of being concerned. You know, teens are tricky, and they can talk their way out of a lot. So it's really good for parents to be empowered and informed.

BRUNDIN: She helps parents with that too. Copeland recently took part in a panel on teens and marijuana at Denver South High, one of the few schools that's tackling the issue head on. The idea was to give parents new strategies for talking to their kids about marijuana in part by sharing some of the science of the risks.

DR. JUDITH SHLAY: Because we are in a brave new world and a new territory, and it's going to change a lot as we go along.

BRUNDIN: Also on the panel was Dr. Judith Shlay, associate director of Denver Public Health, the city's public health department. She points to research showing that teens who use marijuana heavily risk a six to eight point reduction in their adult IQ, similar to lead poisoning, and long-term trouble with abstract reasoning and decision making.

SHLAY: The brain is developing. You got one chance to develop your brain in life, and it develops through about the age of 25, and then you're set.

BRUNDIN: Studies also show marijuana increases the risk for developing psychosis or schizophrenia in some teens. That happened to Carolyn Howard's nephew who stayed for a while with her and her two sons.

CAROLYN HOWARD: They witnessed their cousin who they love dearly fall apart.

BRUNDIN: She hopes the science will be enough to persuade her two teenage boys to stay away from weed. She told them she knows their height, weight, and shoe size, but what's inside their brain...

HOWARD: I don't know if you - and you don't know if you're going to be the kid who tries it once and doesn't need it, or tries it once and feels like it's going to solve all your problems and you need to have it.

BRUNDIN: One in six kids who uses marijuana eventually becomes addicted to it according to studies cited by the National Institutes of Health. Lisa Filholm is a Denver mom who attended the panel. She has had lots of open, very candid discussions with her two teen sons about the pressures and temptations to use pot. But at the end of the day, she says, kids need firm boundaries.

LISA FILHOLM: And I think it's pretty clear. When you're an adult, figure it out for yourself. When you're a kid, nope, zero. I mean, we have a zero tolerance policy in our house, which involves urine testing at home if we think we need it. We put our foot down. No way. No way. The answer was no way. And I think that is how you have to handle it.

BRUNDIN: That kind of no-nonsense approach is exactly what Denver Health's Judith Shlay recommends. Shlay points to a regular survey of Denver students showing that what a parent thinks about marijuana is actually a huge factor in whether kids will use.

SHLAY: If they perceived that the parent approves of it, they are more than three times to four times as likely to use marijuana, alcohol. So parents, how they communicate their feelings about this is very important for kids.

BRUNDIN: But how parents feel about marijuana isn't simple. Many parents at the event don't have a problem with pot being legal. Some may even use it themselves. They just don't want their kids using it. One of their big questions: If you ever smoke pot, should you tell your kids? Several parents at the South High forum felt they should be honest. But research actually shows the opposite.

Health educator Mandy Copeland points to a study of 650 teens, which found that children whose parents stayed mum about past drug use and who delivered a strong anti-drug message were much more likely to develop anti-drug attitudes of their own.

COPELAND: Teens just don't have the capacity at this age to process that information. And I think parents often share that out of goodwill to say: I made some mistakes, hopefully you don't make these as well. But when in fact, teens really can't process it and instead say: Oh, well, my parents did it. They're functioning, healthy adult, and so I'll be OK.

BRUNDIN: Copeland doesn't think parents should lie if asked directly but could instead try to redirect the conversation back to why teen use is harmful. And Dr. Shlay points out that even if parents do have drug experience, it's likely out of date.

SHLAY: We know that the marijuana of today is not the marijuana of parents' generation when they were kids. It's much, much more potent. We don't know what's in all marijuana products, so we can't say that one puff is like four puffs before, or whatever that is.

BRUNDIN: Carol Angel says she avoided pot as a teen. She believes her 16-year-old daughter isn't using it but is aware the world has changed.

CAROL ANGEL: We have discussions about how she says that - especially since legalization - well, she may eventually try it. Just like, well, eventually, I want to try alcohol. And I say, yes, not now. Your brain's developing, and it's illegal. And she goes, oh, yeah, mom, I know.

BRUNDIN: Carol Angel was pleased to leave the panel armed with a new argument for why her daughter should trust her when she says at least wait to try marijuana because it's not a decision the teen brain is equipped to make.

ANGEL: There's two parts of the brains. There's the impulses, and then there's the breaks. And when you're a teen, the impulses are really strong and the breaks aren't very well developed. I thought that was a great way to - I loved that part. And it's a good way for me to discuss it with my daughter.

SHLAY: If the kid's at a party and it's 2 in the morning, and if they've had this conversation with their parent, they will be able to call up and say, I'm in an unsafe situation. I need you to come and get me.

BRUNDIN: Shlay says the parent needs to get up and go. Yeah, they're annoyed, but no questions asked. And wait until the next day when they can go back to these tough conversations when teens might be more ready to listen. For HERE AND NOW, I'm Jenny Brundin in Denver.

YOUNG: And tomorrow, we'll hear about how a pilot treatment program at one Colorado high school is trying to help teenage substance abusers quit. You're listening to HERE AND NOW. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Browse > Home / Featured / Mike Ruppert Dead of Self Inflicted Gun ShotWe have known Mike for more than 12 years. We hadn't talked in at least 6. He was passionate about what he did, and certainly added to the overall knowledge we now take for granted. We didn't always agree with him, and he could be hard to deal with sometimes'..... But we will miss him.

I know there will be a lot of people saying that he was ''suicided'' and maybe he was'.... But his threats to kill himself in recent years either made him a sitting duck, or was a place that he was prepared to go.

I will NEVER take that route '' Don't believe it.

Many will use his death to Fear monger and create self serving conspiracy theories'.... Trust me, Mike wouldn't have wanted that.

Rest in Peace Brother.

~ Truly

Jack Blood

The Message we received:

I have been informed that MCR has committed suicide. I am devastated, and very, very sad'...

We'll report more as information becomes available.

PLEASE DO NOT SPREAD SPECULATION!

MCR was my friend, my client (I was his attorney) and business partner in CollapseNet. We will gather and report THE FACTS about MCR's death, and nothing else. On my honor, the truth of MCR's death WILL BE TOLD, and his memory will be honored.

Media inquiries should come right here, to me, via ceo@collapsenet.com.

Rest In Peace Mike. I am so sorry that you are gone. You fought the greatest of fights, you opened thousands of eyes and you have earned your place in history, and in our hearts.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Guinea reporting on the Ebola outbreakEbola has spread to Conakry, the capital city with 2 million residentsIt has gone "viral," and now the hope is that it doesn't go global, Gupta saysEbola, a simple virus with a small genome, is a swift and bloody killerConakry, Guinea (CNN) -- It took only moments to feel the impact of what was happening here.

We had just landed in Conakry, the capital of Guinea. In the fields right outside the airport, a young woman was in tears. She started to wail and shout in Susu, one of the 40 languages spoken in this tiny country of 12 million people. The gathered crowd became silent and listened intently.

The young man sitting next to me quietly translated, although I already had my suspicions. He told me the woman's husband had died of Ebola, and then quickly ushered us away.

It is probably not surprising the airplane bringing us into Conakry was nearly empty, as are all the hotels here. Not many people in the United States have ever visited Guinea, or could even identify where it sits in West Africa. It is already one of the world's poorest countries, and the panic around Ebola is only making that worse.

Some of it is justified. That's because this time, the outbreak is different. In the past, Ebola rarely made it out of the remote forested areas of Africa.

Key to that is a grim version of good news/bad news: because Ebola tends to incapacitate its victims and kill them quickly, they rarely have a chance to travel and spread the disease beyond their small villages. Now, however, Ebola is in Conakry, the capital city, with 2 million residents. Equally concerning: it's just a short distance from where we touched down, at an international airport.

It has gone "viral," and now the hope is that it doesn't go global.

Ebola: What you need to know

When I asked doctors on the ground about that scenario, they had split opinions. Several told me the concern is real but unlikely. Most patients with Ebola come from small villages in the forest and are unlikely to be flying on international trips, they told me. Furthermore, they don't think Ebola would spread widely in a western country; our medical expertise and our culture -- not touching the dead -- would prevent it.

Others aren't so sure.

No one wants to test that theory.

WHO: Ebola outbreak one of 'most challenging'

With Ebola, there is an incubation period of two to 21 days. Remember these numbers. This is the range of time it takes to develop symptoms after someone has been exposed.

With an international airport close by, that means you could be on the other side of the world before you develop the headache, fever, fatigue and joint pain which make up the early symptoms of an Ebola infection. The diarrhea, rash and bleeding come later. Hiccups is a particularly grave sign with Ebola. It means your diaphragm, which allows you to breathe, is starting to get irritated.

There is a lot we know about Ebola, and it scares us almost as much as what we don't know.

We do know Ebola, a simple virus with a small genome, is a swift, effective and bloody killer. The mortality rate is higher than 50% and in some outbreaks reaches 90%.

Ebola appears to kill in a clever way. Early on, it strategically disarms your immune system, allowing the virus to replicate unchecked until it invades organs all over your body. It convinces your blood to clot in overdrive, but only inside your blood vessels. While those blood vessels choke up, the rest of your body starts to ooze because the clotting mechanisms are all busy.

You start to hemorrhage on the outside of your body. Nose bleeds, bruising, even a simple needle stick will refuse to clot. But, it is the bleeding you don't see -- the bleeding on the inside -- that causes even more catastrophic problems.

Many patients die of shock, within an average of 10 days.

What is ebola?

Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Ebola outbreak in West Africa

HIDE CAPTION

It sounds like the stuff of horror movies. But despite the real danger, Ebola is not at all easy to "catch." If it were, my wife would have refused to let me come in the midst of an outbreak.

To become infected, you generally need to spend extended time with someone who is gravely ill, and come into contact with his or her infected body fluids. That's why family members and health care workers are the most likely to get sick.

Over the last three weeks, at least 112 people have died, including 14 health care workers.

With some infections, you can shed and spread the virus long before you get ill. That's not the case with Ebola. It's only after you are sick and feverish do you become contagious. However, it only takes a miniscule amount to infect and kill. A microscopic droplet of blood or saliva on your bare hand could enter through a break in your skin. And, whether you realize it or not, we all have breaks in our skin.

Since I was a kid, I have been fascinated with outbreaks. I learned in medical school that new pathogens generally make a jump from animals to humans, a process called zoonosis.

This is happening in areas where human and animals come into continuous contact. David Quammen refers to it as "Spillover," in his book of the same name. A stew of ducks, geese, chickens, pigs and humans in southeast Asia led to the spillover of avian flu, H5N1. Contact between pigs and humans in Mexico led to swine flu, H1N1; pigs and fruit bats were the recipe for Nipah fever in Malaysia.

The best guess is that fruit bats may be a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus too, but this has not been confirmed. Quammen makes the point: Ebola didn't enter our world -- we entered its world.

Pathogens can be predators, like lions, tigers and bears. A virus may not plan the way a big cat does, but in a sense it stalks its prey -- waiting for the moment of opportunity, then attacking with fury. Because it can lie silent for years, it's also easy to see Ebola as a killing ghost, like Jack the Ripper.

Presumably outbreaks begin through some human-animal contact, but since that contact is ongoing we don't know what it is that leads Ebola to rear its ugly head. We don't know how to treat the illness or vaccinate against it. We certainly don't know how to cure it.

I thought about all of this as I left that woman in the airport, and I have thought about her a great deal since then. Her grief made an impression on all of us.

It also made this mysterious, exotic virus the world knows, but doesn't fully understand, so much more real and frightening. For the next 21 days (the outer range of the incubation period) the woman we saw will be monitored for a fever or any early signs she may have contracted Ebola from her husband. If she exhibits symptoms, she will be isolated and treated with fluids, oxygen and nutrition.

That is all that can really be offered. Again, there is no cure for Ebola.

For her neighbors, in Guinea and across its border, another critical number is 42 -- as in 42 days, or two incubation periods. If the health care teams here don't see any new cases during that time then they officially say the outbreak is over. We are not there yet, not even close.

The Honorable Jane HarmanDirector, President, and Chief Executive OfficerThe Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars(Former Member of Congress)[full text of statement][truth in testimony form]

It turns out that this brutally cold, miserably long, snowfest of a winter did more than wreak havoc on the bundled Mid-Atlantic masses. It also caused elms, cedars and other trees that typically flower early in the year to hold off for warmer weather.

Now, with more springlike days finally in the forecast, those trees are poised to pollinate alongside oaks, cottonwoods and pines, as well as some grasses. The result could mean a perfect storm of pollen in coming days '-- and an especially miserable stretch for allergy sufferers.

Every day on the roof of Kosisky's lab in Silver Spring, two small greased rods spin through the air, collecting pollen particles. She said that over the past 15 years, the average daily measurement for the first week in April has been about 353 grains per cubic meter of air. That figure can spike to more than 4,000 at the peak of the allergy season.

Earlier this week, the reading stood at 109 grains per cubic meter, well below average.

That meant temporary good news for many allergy sufferers, Kosisky said. But it also suggested a tidal wave of pent-up pollen could be coming our way as the area heads toward the height of allergy season later this month. In fact, by Friday, the decent weather already had sent pollen counts climbing.

[READ: 10 tips for surviving a severe allergy season]

''As soon as we get four to five days of sunshine in a row, we're going to see the buds on the trees explode and people are going to be really suffering,'' said Clifford Bassett, medical director of Allergy & Asthma Care of New York.

''If it warms quickly, everything is going to pollinate at once,'' said Estelle Levetin, a professor of biology at the University of Tulsa who studies airborne allergens.

Soon, the cars and sidewalks that have been covered in snow through much of the winter (and into spring) could be coated in a familiar yellow-green dust. And many people will be trading in winter coats for runny noses, itchy eyes and uncontrollable sneezing.

The danger of a shorter but more intense allergy season, specialists say, is that it could overwhelm immune systems, triggering potentially serious health issues.

''It's more than just a nuisance for some people,'' said Sally Joo Bailey, assistant professor of allergy and immunology at Georgetown University. ''On some really bad days, if you have pollen allergies, you could have a severe asthma attack. When your nasal area gets inflamed because of allergies, it doesn't just stop there. It can get into your lungs.''

Experts say people with allergies can take measures to lessen their contact with pollen, including using central air conditioning rather than opening windows, wearing sunglasses when outdoors and washing their hands frequently. In addition, doctors say patients who know they have spring allergies can begin taking antihistamines before the worst of the season arrives.

This year's cold-induced pollen delay in the Washington area seems like an anomaly, but it could be part of long-term weather fluctuations affecting allergy seasons everywhere.

Scientists have documented that in many parts of the world, the allergy season starts earlier and lasts longer each year, potentially because of climate change. Researchers have theorized that the more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the warmer the temperatures, the more plants produce flowers or food, which means more pollen.

The spring ragweed allergy season has lengthened by up to 27 days since 1995 depending on where you are in North America, according to research by the Agriculture Department published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2011.

Higher latitudes are warming faster than those closer to the equator and are seeing proportionally longer pollen seasons, according to that study. For instance, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the season was 27 days longer than the usual 44 days, while in Minneapolis, it was 16 days longer than the usual 62 days. By contrast, the effect in places such as Texas was minimal.

Lewis H. Ziska, a plant physiologist with the Agriculture Department's crop system and global change laboratory and the study's lead author, said the data his team has collected since then is consistent with the previous findings.

He said that this year's long, frigid winter is especially intriguing to scientists because one of two extremes could happen: ''It could be everything happening all at one time. In that case, there will be records for pollen count set. Or the damage to plants could be severe enough that you may not get much of a pollen season at all.''

Mark Scarupa, an allergist at the Institute for Asthma & Allergy, a medical practice in Montgomery County, agrees that it's difficult to predict the severity of any allergy season. ''Like the weatherman, we can get it wrong pretty bad,'' he said.

Still, he said that in more than a decade of private practice, he has never seen an allergy season begin as late as this one. But like other local specialists, he said he expects that when pollen counts spike this spring, so will the number of patients seeking help.

''We have every expectation in the next week or two,'' he said, ''that we're going to be flooded with people.''

Faux "news" and "Judge" Jeanine Pirro are still flogging the fake Benghazi "scandal" for every drop they can get out of it. This Saturday, Pirro attacked former CIA director Michael Morell as a "political whore" and accused him of lying to Congress to protect Hillary Clinton.

This nation was founded on pillars of truth and justice. It is who we are, it is what we stand for, it's why American patriots broke from King George III's tyranny.

Yet the Obama administration's relentless affront to the core values of this republic continues to chip away at that very foundation.

They laugh at you, look down at you, and they dance by the Obama playbook of delay, deny, lie and then plead the Fifth. It's all theater to them.

The latest performance...

Former CIA Chief Michael Morell swears to tell the truth and incredibly claims his removal of the truth and substitution of lies about Benghazi and his attempt to change the course of history was not political.

In my line of work, when someone swears on the Bible and admits he lied and his false claims become the official version of the U.S. government, it would demand a presentation to the grand jury and an indictment.

He starts:

''I took out the word Islamic in front of extremist and I took it out for two reasons. Most importantly I took it out because we were dealing with protests and demonstrations across much of the Muslim world as a result of the video and the last thing I wanted to do was to do anything to further inflame those passions.''

You remove any reference to Islamic terrorism, any reference to al Qaeda, all references to an orchestrated attack because you didn't want to inflame passions in the Muslim world?

Inflame passions? They'd be high-fiving each other in the middle of the bazaar.

You don't think the killing of four Americans '' including an ambassador '' burning us in effigy, desecrating the American flag is the result of already inflamed passions?

Are you stupid, too?

A little history here, Mr. CIA: It started in 1979 in Iran with the taking of our hostages by Muslim terrorists, then they started killing us.

1993: World Trade Center bombing'...

2000: The U.S.S. Cole...

2001: The Twin Towers, the Pentagon, Pennsylvania'...

And you think you're going to piss these people off? They already hate us.

And by the way, how do we know who the enemy is if you don't identify them? There are all kinds of terrorists.

Morell, you lied to us. You lied to Congress. You knew it wasn't a video, and you perjured yourself. You are a political whore. And then, even though the truth was that our CIA warned us about the dangers in Benghazi, you take that out. Your reason:

''[This] would have been seen as an attempt to make the CIA look good.''

Look good? Even though it was the truth?

Mr. CIA, you didn't just sell your agency to the politics of the Obama re-election campaign and the cover-up for the Hillary 2016 campaign, you sold your soul.

And you perjured yourself for money, now making a fortune working for one of Hillary's dearest friends. So she can continue with her lie that she knew nothing about the dangers to her friend Ambassador Chris Stevens.

I'm not a religious fanatic, but there was a man in a garden who took 30 pieces of silver who denied and lied. What was his name?

So you admit you lied to protect the woman who would be president, who ignored and rejected the pleas of her ambassador and the men who were murdered. Proud of yourself? And you sell your fellow CIA men and women for your personal ambition?

Even comic book characters know what the truth is...

Superman: ''I'm here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way.''

Lois Lane: ''You're gonna end up fighting every elected official in this country!''

Truth and justice were betrayed by you, your president, and the woman who would be president.

It's not just the four men murdered, it's not just their families, battered and beaten with the changing narrative from this administration, including from the mouths of President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and Secretary Panetta, and it's not just the American people. It's our republic, it's our foundation, it's who we are - how dare you try to change that!

Tom "Suck On This" Friedman was in top form today on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS while discussing climate change. He's on the right side of the issue thankfully, but his ideas are way out there when it comes to solutions. He actually believes it would be a good idea for Putin to shut off the power on the Ukraine while they are living on the precipice of war which will suddenly kick start the world into being serious about renewable energy? Is he huffing airplane glue?

Friedman: Fareed, I'm going to ask you something. Would you think I'm a bad guy if I were hoping that Vladimir Putin turned off the gas to Europe? Because that's my secret hope, because I believe if Putin turns off the oil and gas to Europe right now, it would be the equivalent of the 1973 Arab oil embargo, which is what launched the solar wind and efficiency industry.

We only got the first auto mileage standards after that. I think we are poised to take off. I hope you bought solar stocks last year, because if you did, they're all exploding. And I don't have to tell you about Tesla stock. We just need a little push. We just need Vladimir to do the right thing and turn the gas off. I'm happy to pay all the energy bills for the Ukraine because the impact it would have on the whole clean tech industry, which is poised to take off now, would be just like 1973. You go, Vlad. Give it to us.

Yes, Tom, you are a bad guy for suggesting that. How many people would be killed in the aftermath of Putin shutting off the gas in the Ukraine? And if war broke out, I doubt anyone would be talking about climate change in the world. And we all know that the only thing Republicans would be just talking about how weak President Obama is compared to that bastion of strength, King Vlad.

Really, the elites in this country always think their ideas are so wonderful, no matter what the cost it is to the middle and lower classes and how many peons suffer for it.

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I know Tom is a billionaire, and I'm happy he's willing to pay Ukraine's energy costs, but his idea is almost as bad as his Iraq war philosophy:

What they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, um and basically saying, "Which part of this sentence don't you understand?"

You don't think, you know, we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy, we're just gonna to let it grow?

Well, Suck. On. This.

Okay.

That, Charlie, was what this war was about. We could've hit Saudi Arabia, it was part of that bubble. We coulda hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could.